Witchblade : Chosen
by jm1681
Summary: After the battle at Tokyo Tower, Masane is trapped in a nightmare. While Takayama works to bring Masane back, the head of the Doji Group steps up to bring the company back to the top. Takes place after the finale. Masane/Reiji. Please Review.
1. Search

_Hello Witchblade archive :)_

_So this is my first attempt at a Witchblade fic. _

_I know there is a LOT to the lore of Witchblade, however, I warn now that I have only watched the anime. I've read a bit concerning the comics and its characters, however, I have not attempted to use that which I do not fully comprehend. I am to understand that a few things I did here are quite similar to events that occur in the comics. I just hope I did alright with it._

_Anyways, this picks up three days after the events at Tokyo Tower in the finale. _

_Without further adieu, I do not own Witchblade, any of its characters or anything else pertaining to it, save for this fic of course._

* * *

Masane Amaha's lifeless body lay in the middle of a lush and dense forest. The last memory of the most recent barer of the witchblade was standing atop Tokyo Tower. She had tapped into the power of the gauntlet that had so tragically changed her life, and as she had willed it to be, destroyed all of the iWeapons and simultaneously brought about the end of her life. Her only hope as consciousness returned to her, was that she had successfully destroyed the witchblade, so that it could never seek out and eventually consume Rihoko.

Masane's eyes weakly opened and as the haze of what had happened to her dissipated, she took in her environment. It was night, and she was surrounded not only by exquisite and vibrantly colored plant life, but by unearthly yet organic structures as well. Looking herself over, she found she was dressed as she had been before her final transformation, yet as she examined her wrist, the witchblade was gone.

"What the hell?" She quietly asked.

With the little strength she had, Masane pushed herself upright, and got to her feet. Her balance wavered slightly, unsure of where she was, if she was alive or dead, or what she was supposed to do in this place, wherever it was. But then, there was a voice; a familiar voice that called to her from the brush, a voice that quietly begged, "Mommy?"

"Riko?" Masane whimpered.

"Mommy…" Rihoko's fear riddled voice again begged of her mother.

Immediately Masane's blood rose to a boil in her veins. If she was still in possession of the witchblade, she had no doubt the adrenaline alone would have been great enough to spark a transformation. "I'm coming, Riko!" She shouted as she dove into the dense brush. She pushed so hard, her clothes tore and her flesh ripped on the trees and other various structures throughout this odd place. Finally she came out and into a clearing of thick and deep grass. There was nothing as far as she could see in any direction and worse yet, Rihoko had stopped calling for her.

"Riko?" Masane shouted.

The dark sky above her rumbled and churned. Before long, lightning streaked through the sky, cracking and shrieking in the silence of brush that surrounded her. Then yet another familiar voice broke through the din, its tone laced with madness as it beckoned, "Yasuka…"

There was no doubt in Masane's mind; the voice was her own. The look of raw determination on her face slowly faded as a figure came into view. Another crack of lightning briefly illuminated the familiar red armor Masane had donned in her final battle. Slowly, her doppelganger approached, the metallic chime of her armor chilling Masane to her core, freezing her completely. She was terrified at the sight of herself, she couldn't move, couldn't speak; all she could do was watch and listen. Listen as the creature before her laughed, quietly at first, then louder and louder still before finally extending her blades.

Within just a few feet of this creature that bore her resemblance, Masane finally regained control of her body. She turned and ran back into the brush in the hope that she might lose the creature. But as she ran, the sounds of the creature behind her, that constant laughter, the harsh crashes her armor made on itself as she pursued Masane; she knew she'd never escape.

Masane returned to the very spot in which she woke, just as her adrenaline had all but burnt out. Unable to take another step, she stopped and doubled over, her hands braced on her knees as she attempted to collect her breath. In that moment of rest, she realized that the forest was silent once again. The laughter, the incessant metallic wail; they were gone. She straightened herself out and just as she thought she had evaded the creature, her eyes widened slightly as her body went stiff and cold. Her head slumped down, and the last thing she saw were the blades that had pierced her chest.

"Only human," Masane's armored doppelganger muttered before retracting her blades, allowing her limp body to fall back to the earth, exactly as it had been when she first woke. Within seconds, the blood on Masane's blouse and the wounds she had suffered both vanished. Slowly her eyes flickered open and her nightmare began once again.

* * *

Rihoko Amaha's eyes opened in her bed in Reiji Takayama's home. It had been three days since Masane had sacrificed herself to protect Rihoko. Reiji had done his best to explain to his daughter, why Masane had to leave them, yet try as he had to be strong; Rihoko saw the pain her father felt. She rolled onto her side to face her nightstand, and her vision slowly focused on the last thing she had given her mother before she left; that small and delicate shell. With tear-riddled eyes, Rihoko carefully picked the shell from the table. Simply gazing at it for a moment brought her tears to subside. Holding it brought her mother closer to her, and as she gently wrapped her little fingers around it, she rolled back onto her side.

"Mom," she quietly muttered before falling back to sleep.

* * *

The following morning, Reiji and Rihoko sat silently in the front seats of his vehicle. Reiji could strategize his way through the end of the world if need be. His intellect and gift for strategy were stronger than any who would have filled his shoes at the Doji Group. But even with all of his strengths, there was only so much he could do for Rihoko. He constantly racked his brain for things to say, things to do that might ease her pain. His thoughts consumed him day in and day out, and try as he did; he only felt more and more distant from the poor girl.

Reiji slowed the car in front of Marry's Gallery, and without a word, Rihoko reached to the handle. Just as she opened the door, Reiji struggled to add a bit of light to his tone as he quietly spoke, "I'll pick you up at five, Rihoko."

Rihoko turned back to see him smiling somewhat, though his face was practically stuck in his trademark scowl. She contrived a weak smile and replied, "Okay. Good luck today, dad." Rihoko stepped from the car and closed the door behind her. Still keeping a faint smile on her lips, she waved goodbye and headed towards Mariko's.

"Rihoko!" Mr. Chou happily greeted as he came out onto the sidewalk. "How are you doing this morning?" The two quickly collected each other in a tight hug as Reiji watched on. He hated that he couldn't comfort Rihoko the way he knew she needed; the way Masane had trusted him to. Of all the things he promised Masane, he swore that he would take care of Rihoko always, and that meant returning to work. He could never take her with him and he already knew that the kind folks at Mariko's would be best suited to take care of Masane's princess while he was working. None of them seemed to mind the company of the little girl, though they all felt every bit like Reiji; unable to offer her the only comfort she so clearly longed for.

Reiji struggled to keep himself together, and pulled his vehicle around the corner only to find Yusuke Tozawa leaning up against his car, obviously waiting for him. He slowed as he came up to the would-be journalist and rolled down his window, "It's good to see you."

"Yeah likewise," Tozawa half-heartedly replied. Reiji knew that Tozawa had strong feelings for Masane, and after his public defense of her during her final confrontation, he was extremely grateful for what Yusuke had done. "Have you and your boys found anything of Masane's?"

"Not yet," Reiji replied.

Tozawa had something on his mind, but his pride kept him from being too forward. He lightly kicked a pebble as he worked up the courage to speak, "You know, if you ever need anything…I mean with Rihoko…"

Tozawa didn't finish and he didn't have to. Reiji gave him a respectful nod and replied, "Thank you."

"Yeah, you're welcome," Tozawa quietly replied.

* * *

Once again Masane tore through the woods, running as fast as she could to escape her fate. Yet again, she found herself where she awoke, and again she found herself staring at the same blades she once bore. This time however, her doppelganger offered her something other than the usual. The madness in the witchblade's tone only added to the terror Masane felt, "Why do you continue to fight, Yasuka? You're dead, remember?"

As she choked on her own blood, Masane spoke, "Ri…ko…"

Again her armored duplicate laughed. She twisted the blades causing Masane to scream in pain, before finally withdrawing them and allowing her lifeless body to fall to the earth once more.

* * *

Rihoko sat at a table in Mariko's Gallery, a simple coloring book before her. Her head rested in her palm as she carefully filled in the lines. The sadness that hung in the air was unmistakable. Chou, Naomi, Michael, even Mariko all avoided conversation and therefore avoided the tears that would come if they attempted to speak with her about Masane. Tozawa stepped to the door and sat at the table opposite Rihoko. Ever since he had defended Masane, he seemed to be the only one Rihoko would openly speak with, "How're you doing, kid?"

"I'm fine," Rihoko replied. All of her typical excitement and joyfulness were nowhere to be found. Her eyes never detracted to him; she merely continued to color. Tozawa's heart was bleeding at the sight of the poor child. If only he could have done something, anything to save Masane, to spare Riko this suffering.

He quickly contrived a smile, sat back and nonchalantly spoke, "Boy I sure could use somethin' to eat."

"What'll you have?" Mariko asked without turning her attention away from the TV.

"Nah I don't want anything of yours Marry. What I could really go for is one of little Rihoko's dishes," Tozawa replied. He leaned forward and asked, "What do you say, kid? Feel like makin' some breakfast for us?"

Rihoko's crayon stopped in place. Without meeting any of their eyes, she closed her book, slid from her seat and slowly walked towards the kitchen. As soon as the kitchen door swung closed behind her, Mr. Chou immediately burst into loud tears, "I just can't stand seeing her like this!"

From the table, Tozawa's charade had vanished from his face as he replied, "None of us can. Just try and keep it together, Chou." He closed his eyes as his fists balled up in anger, _"We all need to keep it together for Rihoko's sake."_

* * *

At the former site of Tokyo Tower, Takayama stood aboard a debris-covered barge with his old assistant, Hiroki Segawa once again at his side. Not more than a day after Tokyo Tower and the surrounding area were decimated by Masane and the witchblade, had the Doji Group gotten a hold of Takayama. Truth be told, Reiji Takayama was a wealthy man. There was no need for him to return to work, but the promise he made to Masane, the promise to provide the best life possible for Rihoko brought him to accept their offer; oversee the cleanup of the Tokyo Tower site.

"How are you doing, director?" Segawa asked.

"For the last time, Segawa; the only thing I direct now is where the garbage goes," Takayama replied.

"Forgive me sir; old habits die hard," Segawa replied. "If you'll pardon my asking; why did you agree to this position?"

Takayama struggled with his reply. He would never allow himself to succumb to tears before his assistant. He collected himself and replied as best he could, "Being here; knowing that Masane's death saved countless innocent lives, including the life of our daughter; it makes the pain less."

"_Our_ daughter, sir?" Segawa asked.

Takayama showed no signs of correction as he replied, "What else might I call Rihoko? Masane _was_ her mother and I am her father; she is _our_ daughter."

Just as their conversation had ended, a diver abruptly broke the surface of the bay and flipped his facemask off as he shouted, "Mr. Takayama, we found something down there!"

Takayama's heart instantly rose to his throat. He had dreamt of this exact moment every night since Masane's death. He desperately tried to keep his composure as he asked, "What is it?"

"A crystalline statue," the diver replied.

As the diver spoke those three little words, Takayama's world slowed to a halt. He knew Masane was the only blade barer left at the peak of Tokyo Tower, and before he could gather his thoughts, Segawa spoke Takayama's words for him with every bit of the same surprise, "A crystalline statue?"

The diver nodded and Reiji quietly exclaimed, "Masane…" He turned and proceeded to run back to the cabin of the barge as he called out, "Segawa!"

"Yes sir!" Segawa shouted in reply. He turned back to face the diver and ordered, "Get back down there! No one is to go near her, understand?"

"Yes sir!" The diver replied.

As Reiji ran to the cabin to get suited up, a single thought resonated in his mind, _"I'm coming, Masane."_

* * *

All eyes were on Rihoko as she quietly emerged from Marry's kitchen with a plateful of perfectly golden French toast. She delicately placed the plate of food, as well as a stack of plates and silverware atop the table behind Mr. Chou, before returning to her table with Tozawa. She picked up her crayon and flipped the book open once again. Motionless silence remained in the room until she made her next mark, "Breakfast is ready."

Tozawa immediately perked himself up. He leapt from his seat and stepped over to the neatly set table as he called out to Mariko, "How about some coffee, Marry?"

She too contrived her best smile as she replied, "Sure. Anyone else want a cup?"

Chou quickly figured out what they were doing and too played along, "I'll have one."

"Me too," called Naomi from her usual table.

As Mariko's tenants dove into the plate of food with smiles all around, Chou noticed Rihoko still in her seat, still coloring and asked, "What about you, Rihoko?"

Again a brief silence as they awaited Rihoko's response, "I'm not hungry."

Seeing their ploy hadn't worked in the least, everyone glumly returned to their seats. As Chou took a bite of his toast, he fought back tears, _"Dammit Chou, don't cry!"_

* * *

Moments after being alerted to the existence of a crystal statue among the rubble littered bay that was once the site of Tokyo Tower, Takayama made his descent to confirm his suspicions. If he was right, Masane and the witchblade hadn't merely been destroyed in the blast, but had indeed crystallized and separated just as the others. What he was to do with her remains was the furthest thing from his mind, all he wanted was to see her once more.

As he swung his flashlight in search of the diver who'd found her, a glimmer of her crystalline structure appeared. His eyes widened and he nearly forgot to breath as he descended closer still. There was no doubt in his mind what he was looking at as he grew closer and closer still.

On the barge, Segawa asked over a radio, "Do you see anything, sir?"

"She's here, Segawa," Reiji replied. He could hold his tears no more as he was within arms length of Masane's crystalline body. Posed with her blade-baring arm raised, her eyes closed, her face turned down and just the faintest hint of a smile on her lips, almost as though she was finally at peace in the end. However, something Reiji hadn't anticipated was the state of the witchblade. Instead of falling away from Masane, it too was encased in the crystal, and a series of red veins had spread throughout her body, all originating from the gauntlet. He had never let himself say it aloud, but in this moment, he harbored no control over his tongue, "Masane was different from the others, Segawa."

"What would you like-"

"Send _our_ best recovery team immediately," Reiji interrupted.

While he needn't do so, Segawa gave a knowing smile as he replied, "Understood, sir."

* * *

"TELL ME YASUKA!" Her armored twin demanded. "Tell me why you continue to fight!"

Again Masane found herself staring down at the blade that had penetrated her. She once again choked on her own blood as the double retracted her blade. Masane's eyes closed and her body crumbled to the earth as the witchblade baring copy walked off, "Pathetic human."

However, as Masane's body hit the ground, something was different. Her eyes shattered open and filled with a white light just as they had when she was about to change. A look of unbridled rage came across her face as she quietly spoke, "My name is Masane." A primal roar built in her lungs before finally manifesting in a violent scream. Seemingly no longer a barer of the witchblade, Masane was changing, but into what?


	2. Test

"Good lord," Segawa muttered in absolute amazement of their find. Masane's crystalline form stood upright on the deck of Takayama's cabin cruiser. The growth of the almost artistic vein work throughout her body was unprecedented. Segawa gently ran a finger along the hardened crystal that made up one of the numerous blades that extended from her armor, and asked, "What do you make of the veins?"

"It would seem that not only did the witchblade find a host in Masane, but was seemingly unwilling to relinquish its grip on her, even in death," Reiji replied in his typical monosyllabic tone.

Segawa stepped around Masane and approached his boss as he asked, "Do you have a plan, sir?"

"By now I'm sure that news of our disappearance from the site this morning has gotten to Irazawa," Reiji replied. "Without the resources available in the Doji labs, there's no way I'll be able to find out what's happened to Masane."

"What are you thinking sir?"

"We make a deal with Irazawa," Reiji replied.

"Surely you know that will be much easier said than done."

"Perhaps, but the witchblade is dormant. None of our own equipment picked up any of its known signatures. Doji can search all they want; we'll simply keep Masane hidden until we reach an agreement."

"Your plan sounds easy enough."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll take this one step at a time, but Segawa, I need you to promise me one thing."

"Anything sir," Segawa replied in humble servitude.

"I'll die before I let them turn Masane into one of their experiments. If it should come to that, take Masane and Rihoko away from this place, away from Japan, from Doji's influence. See to it that Rihoko gets the life we wanted for her," Reiji replied.

"You have my word, sir," Segawa replied with a bow.

As he looked to Masane's crystalline face, Reiji thought to himself, _"We're going to get you back, Masane. I swear we will."_

* * *

Having finished with her coloring, Rihoko closed the book and quietly put her things away. She still appeared every bit as broken as she had the day Masane left them. She folded her arms on the table and laid her head down atop them, her hollow frown instantly bringing Mariko and Chou to look away from her. From the back of the café, Tozawa once again approached her table, still wearing a smile to try and get through to little Rihoko.

He again took the seat opposite her, and laid a book down. He flipped it open and without even seeing its pages, Rihoko could tell just by the sound they made what the book was; a scrapbook. She slowly raised her head from her arms, and looked to its first page which held a picture of her atop her mother's lap. Tears instantly filled her eyes as she quietly spoke, "Mom…"

Tozawa turned the book to face her and quietly remarked, "I was going to give it to you tomorrow, but I thought you could use it now. I figured one day when you got older, it'd help you remember the times we all had here."

Her tears slid down her cheeks and finally, Rihoko smiled, "Thank you, Tozawa."

* * *

In an ornate and luxurious office within the Doji complex, Reiji Takayama stood before his superior, the elusive head of the Doji Group; Seiji Irazawa. Unwilling to offer Takayama the privilege of seeing his face, Irazawa spoke with his back to Reiji, "Surely you understand our disapproval, Takayama. You of all people know that the witchblade and whomever it is attached to belongs to the Doji Group."

"I do, just as I'm sure you understand my disapproval as to what will be done with Masane if I were to return her to you."

Irazawa chuckled slightly in an effort to rile Takayama. Unfortunately for him, Reiji would not let himself succumb to such a taunt. Seiji finally turned to face Takayama and asked, "Masane? Do we offer our dead names, Takayama?" Seiji was an older man, older than Takayama, yet not quite gray.

"We don't yet know if she is in fact dead, Seiji," Takayama replied. "Every witchblade or cloneblade barer throughout time has suffered the same fate at the hands of their own power; crystallize, disintegrate, leave the weapon behind for another. Masane is different."

"And how is that?" Irazawa asked with a confident smile.

"Even in death, the witchblade has not let her go."

Irazawa's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Come again?"

"Masane _did_ crystallize in the destruction of the iWeapons, but instead of disintegrating like the others, the witchblade has encased itself within her crystalline form. It's formed its own vein structure within her and I believe that while it is in fact dormant, it may be permanently bound to her."

"Nonsense, the witchblade has never permanently bonded with a host," Irazawa exclaimed in anger.

"There is no history of anything until it happens, Seiji," Takayama explained, stunning Irazawa to silence. "It is my belief that the witchblade itself is evolving."

"Impossible," Irazawa commented.

"Unlikely, but I think we can all agree that with the advent of the witchblade, the realm of what is and isn't possible is rather unique," Takayama replied.

Accepting his defeat, Irazawa calmed his nerves and quietly asked, "What do you want, Takayama?"

Here goes, "Full access to the labs so that I may conduct my research the way _I_ see fit, as well as a written and signed document from you, and the head of every councilman on Doji's payroll; no one so much as touches Masane Amaha without my express permission."

Irazawa chuckled slightly, "You forget your place Taka-"

"My terms are non-negotiable, Irazawa," Reiji interrupted. He was so close, now was just to seal the deal, even if with a bluff. He removed his cellphone from his pocket and flipped it open, "One phone call leaks all of the Doji Group's secrets to the press." Observing the mild look of panic on Irazawa's face, Takayama calmly asked, "Do we have a deal, or not?"

A moment later, Takayama stepped outside Irazawa's office and raised his phone to his ear, "It is done, have Masane moved to the dock labs."

"Right away, sir," Segawa replied.

* * *

As the ferocity of her scream grew louder still, Masane's eyes turned a familiar gold tone as something enveloped her, something new. Streaks of black armor laced her arms forming an elegant, yet primal pattern all about her body with their weave. Blades longer than those wielded by her adversary erupted from her forearms, though she was free of any larger, more cumbersome ornamentation. Her hair remained as it was, while a black streak cut across the left side of her face, and the armor completed itself with a simple golden line across her wound.

At hearing the transformation, the doppelganger turned to face Masane. As the witchblade observed her in this new form, she asked with the same lunacy filled confidence Masane herself felt when wielding the witchblade, "What is this? Still have some fight in you?"

Masane stood braced and ready for battle as she gasped for breathe, the slightest hint of pleasure in her breathing as it slowed. She didn't know the powers this new armor might offer her, but she felt the same absolute confidence the witchblade itself once offered her as she spoke, "Come on."

She invited the doppelganger with the simple curl of her bladed finger, and as the witchblade charged her, a smile overtook Masane's lips.

* * *

Rihoko flipped through the pages of Tozawa's scrapbook, finally smiling. Though her eyes were full of tears, the calm in her tone made it easier for everyone to listen, "Sometimes in my dreams, mom and I still live here. She takes so much looking after my mom." A stray tear finally ran down her cheek as she continued, "I hope that wherever she is, that she has someone to take care of her."

Mr. Chou could no longer hold himself back as he once again erupted in a loud outburst of tears. Oddly enough, he seemed to be the only one who'd suffered such a severe breakdown at what Rihoko had said. He looked about the room and asked, "Oh come on! How can the whole lot of ya not be a blubbering mess when she says something like that?"

Apparently that's all it took for Mariko and Naomi to shed their tears as well. In the meanwhile, Rihoko and Tozawa merely shared a glass-eyed stare and again Tozawa offered Rihoko the same words he so often had, "I'm sorry, kid. Sorry it had to be your mom."

"It's alright," Rihoko replied. "She saved us all, right?"

Tozawa smiled slightly as he replied, "Yes she did."

* * *

"Progress report on the sisters, Fujiwara," Irazawa demanded from the seat in his office.

"_Yes sir. Our initial reports on the Neogene sisters are extraordinary,"_ a man's voice replied over the speakerphone. _"They show incredible healing potential and due to their genetic engineering, they are all suitable hosts for cloneblades."_

Irazawa smiled, "Excellent. Proceed according to plan, and not a word of this to Takayama, do I make myself clear?"

"_Yes sir," _the man replied.

Irazawa ended the call on his end, and turned to face out the window of his office. _"Conduct your research Takayama; try to bring back your precious Masane. While you waste your time trying to revive that woman, I will reap the benefits of your knowledge and pour it into new blades. Weapons so strong, the witchblade itself will be rendered completely inferior."_

* * *

As Segawa and several members of Takayama's personal recovery crew carefully wheeled Masane's crystalline form into the lab, Takayama watched on. He looked to his watch: 1530; he had an hour to make a decision. He could easily bring Rihoko to the dock lab where she may see her mother once again, but was it wise? She may be afraid of what she sees, or not be willing to accept that it was in fact Masane. As they carefully lowered her to the floor of the lab, a scientist approached her with several circular pads. He turned to Takayama in search of his permission, to which he received a nod.

Beside Takayama stood another scientist, judging by his appearance, a doctor of sorts. "Anything yet?" Takayama asked of the pads being carefully placed on Masane.

The doctor cued up a 3D image of the crystalline structure that made up Masane and replied, "We have an image."

Takayama looked on the screen as the computer refreshed itself, displaying the intricacies of the veins that had filled Masane's crystalline body. While he undoubtedly loved Masane, the scientist in him couldn't help but speak, "Fascinating. The vein work laid out by the witchblade even seems to have left room for her internal organs."

As the screen continued to refresh with data, the doctor spoke, "Irazawa tells me you believe the witchblade is permanently bound to Miss Amaha."

"Masane…" Reiji corrected, "…and yes, that's correct."

"Since I've been a part of the Doji Group, I have read all of your research, sir," the doctor replied. "I'm new to this level of involvement with the project, however, judging by these images I would have to agree with you; the witchblade is undoubtedly bound to her. If you're correct and the witchblade truly is dormant, there may be a chance that the blade itself may be capable of bringing Masane back."

* * *

While Masane's new armor proved to be every bit as strong as the original armor offered to her by the witchblade, it didn't change the fact that her enemy was the embodiment of the witchblade's true power. Her doppelganger was stronger, faster and more resilient than her, though something was different. Wielding this new armor, Masane felt more in control than she ever had when she bore the witchblade. She didn't act on her attacker, but observed and reacted.

While this newfound ability was keeping her alive, it was only just. Her armor had been damaged throughout and while she struggled to maintain her ground, she knew she had to make her move soon. Masane gasped for breath as she again taunted her adversary, "Come on!"

Her duplicate tended to her lip, which leaked a white essence. The doppelganger laughed before lunging towards Masane, their blades meeting with a hollow chime.

* * *

Reiji checked his watch once again: 1645. If he stayed much longer, he would be late to pick up Rihoko from Mariko's. He weighed the options in the moment; be late to pick up Rihoko or try and bring Masane back. His decision seemed all too obvious as he raised his phone into view and clicked a contact. He placed the phone to his ear and after a moment, he answered, "Tozawa. I'm going to be a little late in picking up Rihoko tonight."

"_Is everything alright?"_

"I apologize, I can't discuss it just yet, but I need more time."

"_Sounds pretty serious."_

Takayama's eyes glanced towards Masane as he replied, "You might say that."

"_Take your time, but if this turns into a multi-day affair, I'm going to need some answers," _Tozawa replied.

"Fair enough." Takayama knew Tozawa would want to know if something had come up involving Masane, and after what he'd done for her, he'd more than earned it. Reiji let his guard down for a moment and replied, "If you do not see or hear from me tonight, tomorrow I will _show_ you what is keeping me."

Tozawa's eyes widened as Reiji finished his thought, _"I'll be in touch."_

The line went dead and Yusuke lowered his phone. As she observed his spooked reaction, Rihoko asked with terror in her voice, "Is my dad alright?"

"Wha…" Tozawa asked having snapped out of his trance. He quickly turned his smile back on and replied, "Yeah of course. He just might have to work a little late tonight. If he does, you can stay here again."

"Just like old times?" Rihoko asked.

"Just like old times, kiddo."

* * *

In another of the Doji Group's labs, a Neogene sister lay restrained on a table. Her body trembled as the scientists about the room spoke of her as though she were nothing more than an object. Her voice was laced with fear as she asked, "Will someone please tell me where I am? I want to go home."

From an observation window, Irazawa watched on without the slightest glimmer of emotion as the child begged for answers. In the lab, a scientist retrieved a cloneblade from a case at the foot of the table. He looked up to Irazawa in search of his permission. Without hesitation, Irazawa held a switch on an intercom and ordered, "Proceed."

"No, please don't do this!" The young girl begged.

"Preparing to administer cloneblade number one," the scientist calmly spoke. At seeing what they were trying to put on her, the Neogene tightly balled up her fist. With the simple press of a button atop the shackle that held her wrist, an electric pulse coursed through her hand, locking her fingers straight so that the doctor could slip the gauntlet on unhindered. He slid the weapon beneath the shackle, and up her arm until it took over, joining with her on its own. Overwhelmed with pain, the girl's other fist balled up tight as she screamed and thrashed about the table.

On the opposite side of the table, before the first blade had completely taken, another scientist stood holding a second. As he raised it to the girl's hand he spoke, "Administering cloneblade number two." He too used an electric shock to straighten out her fingers, and quickly slipped the blade onto her arm.

* * *

Takayama checked his watch once again: 2310. Just as he'd looked away from Masane, the numerous displays that gave readouts from the pads placed on her went haywire.

Immediately, the doctor assisting them called out, "Sir!"

Reiji approached the wall of monitors and didn't need to ask, he could tell by the extreme differentials in the numbers that something was going on within the crystal. _"Masane…"_

* * *

Masane's witchblade baring duplicate knelt atop her. Her knees firmly planted above Masane's chest pinning her down, while her blades were crossed, one on each side of Masane's throat. All that kept her copy from removing her head, were Masane's own blades. She held the witchblade off with every ounce of strength she could muster, but her injuries had taken a toll on her and slowly but surely, the doppelganger's blades grew ever closer to her throat.

Injured quite a bit herself, the bloodied witchblade barer spoke, "Clearly I underestimated you, but I'm afraid this is the end. Perhaps I should seek out little Rihoko…" instantly, Masane's eyes widened, "…perhaps she can give me what I need."

Color faded from Masane's eyes leaving them nothing more than empty black spheres. With strength she'd never known, Masane slowly separated the doppelgangers blades and shouted with a primal fury, "YOU WON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!" In an instant, Masane forced her duplicate off of her and got to her feet. Just as the witchblade attempted to land the final blow, Masane slammed her right blade and arm up to her elbow, through her adversary's chest.

"Impossible…" the doppelganger muttered as white essence poured from both her mouth and her wound.

"Unlikely," Masane replied with a smile as her tongue passed over her lips. The duplicate crystallized and disintegrated within seconds, leaving the witchblade at Masane's feet. Masane's armor vanished leaving her once again dressed in her typical attire. She picked the witchblade from the grass and simply stared at it for a moment. The wretched artifact had caused her unfathomable pain in life, yet something inside her begged to wield it once more. Takayama once called the witchblade Masane's destiny; perhaps he was more right than he knew. Guided by a desire she didn't fully comprehend, Masane slipped the blade onto her wrist and the witchblade's true form overtook her.


	3. Return

"Sir!" Takayama's assistant doctor shouted over the multiple bells and chimes that sounded due to the extreme readings coming from Masane. The building itself began to shake, sending everyone but Segawa, Reiji and their one doctor running from the lab area and observation room.

"Hold!" Reiji ordered the doctor as several of the machines sparked and smoked.

The windows that separated the observation room from the lab shattered to the ground and finally the doctor leapt from his seat and ran from the room, "I didn't sign up for this!"

Within the crystal that had taken Masane's form, the witchblade's red jewel filled both the lab and the observation room with a bright red hue. The lights in both rooms flickered for a moment before the fluorescent bulbs burst in their fixtures. Then, all of the noise and shaking stopped, leaving the lab an ominous and dimly lit silence.

While Segawa had taken cover, Reiji's eyes never left Masane. He climbed through the now shattered windows and into the lab area. He cautiously approached Masane's crystalline body and delicately placed his hands on her shoulders, "Masane?"

Segawa stood from behind the desk in the observation room and looked out into the lab. Watching Takayama as he stood beside her, Segawa spoke, "Sir?"

He didn't turn his eyes away from Masane as he asked, "Have any of the computers come back online?"

Segawa tapped at the keyboards that rested on the desktop bringing about no results. He stepped closer to the windows and replied, "I'm afraid not, is she…"

The dim light offered by the witchblade slowly began to fade, and the hope that Takayama had felt moments ago dwindled to nothing. Then the room began to glow red once again, not by the witchblade's illumination, but by the veins throughout Masane's body. Darkness spread throughout the crystal, enveloping Masane completely, and extinguishing the illumination the veins brought.

The emergency lights flipped on as Segawa and Takayama took a step back. Knowing full well the power the witchblade could unleash at any moment, a frightened Segawa _just_ managed to speak, "Sir…"

The black crystal that now covered Masane's body began to crack throughout bringing Reiji to immediately panic, "No…" Just as he feared that Masane's crystal body would shatter, taking her from him and Rihoko once again, a flake of the black crystal cracked off revealing a piece of Masane's yellow blouse.

"Masane?" Takayama roared at the sight of her shirt. He reached his hands to her face, and just as he touched her; she woke. Her body briefly convulsed, shaking almost all of the black crystal free from her as a scream emanated from her lips. The witchblade dissolved into her arm, appearing only as a scar on her wrist, just as it had before she had first transformed. Her knees gave way and Takayama caught and collected her shaking form into his arms. He carefully brought them to the floor and continued to speak her name in an effort to get a reaction from her, "Masane! Masane can you hear me?"

He delicately wrapped her jaw with his hand, holding her twitching head still so that her eyes may meet his. Still, her eyes wandered endlessly and again Takayama asked, "Masane?" The rapid movements of her eyes slowed, and finally her eyes locked with his.

A slight smile came across her lips and she quietly spoke, "Reiji?"

While Reiji Takayama found it nearly painful to smile, he couldn't help himself as his emotions overwhelmed him, "Hey you."

Masane's smile grew at the same time her eyes began to close. Just before her eyes closed completely she weakly asked, "Riko?"

Takayama placed a finger to Masane's throat and again a smile appeared on his lips; she was breathing, and her heart was beating. While he had no idea the data they'd collected before the power went, nor the exact reasoning the witchblade chose to bring Masane back, he was completely incapable of caring about either. She was back in his arms, and before long, her daughter could be back in hers.

"Sir?" Segawa asked from the observation room in complete awe of what he had just witnessed.

"Retrieve our staff, have them bring a stretcher and prepare the executive medical suite," Reiji ordered. "When that is done, get to Mariko's as soon as possible to pick up Rihoko and Tozawa."

"Understood sir," Segawa replied before venturing off.

Reiji looked back down to Masane's sleeping form with no words that could possibly describe his happiness. Even if she were back for just a few hours, as long as Rihoko could see her mother just once more, he knew it would mean the world to their daughter.

* * *

In the other Doji lab, Irazawa now stood in the operating room, beside the sister his scientists had fitted with a pair of cloneblades. They'd all only heard vague reports of the potential dual blades would offer a host, yet the prospect of creation kept their fears at bay. The child lay on the table with a monitor lowered just several inches above her face.

Lacking any medical knowledge advanced enough to decipher any of the information the computers displayed; Irazawa turned to his lead scientist and asked, "How are her vitals, Fujiwara?"

As Fujiwara observed the readouts his mouth fell agape. Every statistic, every last line was peaked and holding flat at the highest point of its graph. Finally he replied, "The readings are off of our charts, sir. Until we can recalibrate our equipment, we won't be able to accurately measure the effects of the cloneblades on her anatomy."

Irazawa turned back to face the child who appeared to be in shock as she lay twitching. Irazawa stepped closer to the girl and examined the final placement of the blade on her wrist. With little in the way of an expression on his face he spoke, "Begin the treatment."

Fujiwara spun in his chair to face Irazawa, his hesitation to comply with the Doji head's wishes written on his face, "But sir, without measuring her vitals-"

Again Irazawa's tone remained flat and unwavering as he spoke, "This is business, Fujiwara." The scientist's eyes widened as Irazawa continued, "If you will not begin her treatment, I will find someone who will."

In fear for his job, Fujiwara replied, "Yes sir, right away."

On the screen before the sister's eyes, images began to cycle; images of war, of the dead and rotting bodies left by war. Intermixed with the images were clips of the battle that took place at Tokyo Tower, and finally of Masane in the true form of the witchblade. The sister's eyes remained wide open as she absorbed the disturbing and violent imagery. As she lay there, incapable of looking away, she quietly whimpered, "Help me…"

* * *

At the Natsuki building, Yusuke Tozawa sat at the table in Masane and Rihoko's old apartment. Rihoko lay on her side of their old bed, her hand tightly clutching the shell she had given her mother. Her pillow was just damp from where she had shed a few tears before falling asleep. Tozawa longed for sleep but Takayama said he would be in touch. On the table just in front of him, his cellphone sat and he merely stared at it waiting for it to ring.

He picked the phone off the table and clicked a button bringing its home screen to come up, the time: 0130. He set the phone back down and quietly spoke to himself, "He's not calling."

Just as he had given up hope, Tozawa's phone came to life letting out a simple beep as opposed to a long and loud ring. Checking the ID, it was Takayama's assistant. Tozawa pressed the phone to his ear and quietly asked, "Segawa, right?" His eyes immediately doubled in size at what Segawa told him. As Segawa continued to speak, Tozawa turned and looked over his shoulder towards Rihoko. "Since when?" he asked. "If this is some trick or-" Segawa interrupted him, bringing him to stand and look out the window; Segawa stood beside Takayama's vehicle and waved up to Tozawa. "Hold on, we'll be right down."

He hung up with Segawa and knelt down to carefully pick up Rihoko without waking her. He quickly made way down and out to the front of the building and Segawa quietly spoke, "Please hurry."

Tozawa snuggly buckled a still sleeping Rihoko into the backseat and took a seat beside Segawa. The car quickly headed back to the Doji labs, and Tozawa wasted no time asking questions, "She's back?"

"We don't have a lot of answers right now," Segawa replied. "We found Masane's body crystallized, but-"

"But what?" Tozawa interrupted in impatience.

"When a witchblade or cloneblade barer crystallizes, their structure typically breaks down within seconds, leaving nothing more than crystal dust and the original weapon," Segawa explained.

"So what happened to Masane?"

"When we found Masane's body, the crystal that comprised her structure didn't appear as fragile as any of the others we've seen. When we returned her to the lab-"

Tozawa scoffed and folded his arms as he interrupted Segawa, "So how long did it take to get Masane on a table?"

"I assure you, Takayama took every precaution before bringing Masane back to a Doji lab," Segawa replied.

"Yeah sure."

"As I was saying, back at the lab, a hardness test was performed; the crystal that enveloped Masane was found to be harder than diamond. Making matters more complicated was the fact that the gauntlet itself never detached from her wrist."

"What?" Tozawa replied, "That thing is still a part of her?"

"The witchblade was encased within the crystal. As I said, we've never seen or heard of an instance like this. Not only had the witchblade encased itself within the crystal, but it also enacted a network of veins and arteries throughout her body, almost as though it were keeping her in some sort of stasis or life support."

"So that thing on her arm is what kept her alive?"

"The witchblade is a complex living entity; it alone chooses its hosts. As far back as our records of the witchblade go, we've been led to believe that it exists for the simplest of purposes; engage in combat and move on to another host."

"But if that's the case, why didn't it leave Masane?"

"For all intensive purposes, Masane was not a suitable host for the blade in the first place."

"What?"

"Both our research and the research acquired from our former partnership with the NSWF has come to yield several common denominators in the witchblade's choice of a host. Masane however fits virtually none of those traits, save for the fact that she is a woman."

* * *

In a simple yet elegant medical suite within the Doji Group's dock labs, Masane lay on a bed, covered to her waistline with a sheet. Her hands rested above the sheet and a single IV was run into her arm. A doctor finished collecting a blood sample and as he left the room, Takayama spoke from Masane's bedside, "Thank you."

While he wasn't a Neogene, love and the emotions that surrounded it were still somewhat foreign to Takayama. Alone with Masane, he slid his hand beneath hers and while she didn't wake, her fingertips weakly tightened on his. A knock at the door brought him to carefully remove his hand and stand from his seat as he spoke, "Come in."

Segawa entered the room first, followed by Tozawa whom was carrying Rihoko. As soon as Tozawa rounded the corner, as soon as Masane's yellow blouse was in view, tears immediately flooded his eyes. He had no words for the sight of Masane, save for that which seemed to come out so simply every time saw her, "Melony?"

He stepped just beside the bed and knelt down still holding Rihoko. A smile overtook his lips, and as he respectfully looked her over, his tears ran free. He chuckled slightly in happiness and looked to Takayama as he asked, "It's really her?" Takayama merely nodded and Tozawa again spoke, "Please don't take this as me being ungrateful…" he carefully laid Rihoko on the bed beside Masane, "…but how is this possible?"

"We don't know," Reiji replied. "When the transformation from crystal statue to human being took place, the power surge knocked out all of our computers." He turned to face Masane and continued, "The witchblade chooses its hosts. In Masane's case-"

"She was completely incompatible, right?" Tozawa interrupted, once again garnering Takayama's full attention. "I got that from Segawa, tell me something new."

"Perhaps we focused on the wrong traits in our initial studies. Everything we may have accepted as a mark of compatibility may have simply been the witchblade settling on a host, as opposed to finding its ideal host."

"So what did it-"

"Tozawa," Takayama interrupted. "I know you want answers and believe me, I do as well. I know what Masane and Rihoko mean to you and the rest of her family, but I can't give you answers that I myself don't have." Tozawa accepted Takayama's comment and Reiji finished his thought as he looked to Rihoko and Masane, "Right now, I think we should all just happy to have Masane back."

"Just one more thing," Tozawa replied, his tone indicative of his dedication to the coming comment. "If I get wind of her being mistreated by anyone at Doji, I swear I'll go straight to the top. When I'm through, there will be nothing left of them; I swear it."

"You have my word," Takayama replied with a respectful nod.

"Mommy?" Rihoko spoke in her sleep, immediately focusing all eyes on her. Rihoko rolled on to her side and draped her arm across her mother's belly. Then to everyone's wide-eyed amazement, Masane's hand rose to her daughter's and she spoke, "I'm here, baby."

* * *

Meanwhile in the other lab, the Neogene sister remained on the table, still being subjected to the horrific images on the monitor before her. Her expression had remained constant, though after an hour of 'treatment' as Irazawa called it, the sister finally began to breakdown. A broken smile formed on her lips as she engrossed herself in the images.

"More…power…" She muttered from beneath the screen. The lights in the room flickered and several of the computers began to ring warning tones.

"Report, Fujiwara," Irazawa demanded, not quite in fear of what was going on around him.

"We just finished recalibrating the last of our instruments and they've peaked once again!" Fujiwara replied.

The sister's fists clenched and her first transformation began right there on the table. Her skin was enveloped by pale gold armor, her brunette hair turned bleach white, and a pair of moderately sized hook blades extended from her wrists. She tugged her arms through the restraints, her blades destroying them completely and she pushed herself upright.

"Restrain her!" Fujiwara ordered as his hand crashed onto a red switch on his desk. As the sister freed herself from her remaining restraints, Irazawa remained steady and motionless, merely watching on as his pet project came to life.

As Fujiwara's assistants attempted to gain control of the sister, multiple strands of her hair extended into solid and razor sharp blades, piercing each of their hearts simultaneously, but leaving Irazawa and Fujiwara alive. Fujiwara ran to the sealed exit door and slammed his fists against it as he cried out, "Help! We need hel-"

His eyes widened in pain and from behind him, he could feel the child's breath on him as she spoke, "Tell me how good it hurts, Mr. Fujiwara." She pulled her blades apart, nearly ripping him in half. His body fell to the floor and she immediately turned to Irazawa and pinned him up against the wall. She didn't injure him, but merely restrained him and asked, "Are you afraid?"

Irazawa kept his eyes locked with her as he calmly spoke, "Bah, bah black sheep…"

The sister's eyes widened and her slow encroachment on Irazawa ceased immediately as she spoke, "…have you any wool?"

The sister stepped back from him, retracted all of her blade like extremities and knelt before him, her head bowed down in respect. Irazawa smiled deviously as he spoke, "There now, that's better."

"Yes sir," the sister respectfully replied.

He walked around her, observing her cloneblade form and asked, "What is your name little girl?"

"Akimi, sir," she replied.

As he came around to face her again, his smile remained as he ordered, "Please stand, Akimi." She stood before him as she was told and maintained avoiding eye contact out of respect. "Very good, Akimi. Now if you would be so kind as to kill yourself."

Akimi's arm trembled as she raised her hand to her temple only furthering the look of satisfaction on Irazawa's face. "That's a good girl," he reassured. A single tear slipped from Akimi's tear filled eyes before all of her trembling ceased completely; her fingers had extended into blades and ripped through her skull. Within seconds her body crystallized and disintegrated.

* * *

Masane's eyes shattered open, though she didn't cry out or draw any attention to herself. As the world came into focus, she saw Segawa and Takayama in one corner of the room going over information at a computer terminal. Looking to her right, she found herself staring at Tozawa, his mouth hanging open in awe. She smiled just as she began to become cognizant of her body and felt Rihoko beside her. Just as Tozawa looked as though he was about to speak, Masane raised a finger to her lips. She looked down to her daughter who rested so comfortably at her mother's side. The tears in her eyes were unavoidable as she spoke, "Good morning, sleepy head."

Segawa and Takayama both turned to Masane and Rihoko, just as Rihoko's eyes opened. The little girl took in the familiar clothing she clung to, and her eyes slowly looked up to meet Masane's. "Mom?" She asked.

"Hey Riko," Masane replied, her voice even and clear.

"Mom…" Rihoko replied in disbelief before completely waking in an instant, "…MOM!" Rihoko pushed herself upright and locked her arms around her mother tighter than she ever had. Masane's hands gently wrapped around Rihoko's small form and she and asked in a frenzy, "Is it really you, mom? Are you really here?"

Masane's tears of happiness continued to flow as she replied with just a hint of laughter beneath her tone, "It's me, baby."

"I missed you so much, mom! Please don't ever leave me again!" Rihoko cried.

In the corner of the room, Reiji looked away, feeling boundless guilt for being incapable of taking care of Rihoko. Beside him, Segawa wiped a single stray tear from his eyes as he observed Masane and Rihoko.

Takayama finally turned to face them, and Masane's eyes locked with his. While he still felt tremendous guilt, Masane's smile absolved him in an instant as she quelled Rihoko's fears, "I'm not going anywhere, baby."


	4. Home

"Melony…" An awestruck Tozawa muttered as Masane and Rihoko remained in the grips of a tight hug.

At hearing Tozawa's voice, Rihoko pulled away from her mother and they both turned to face him, though it would be Masane who spoke, "Hey Tozawa."

"Are you…" he searched for the right words, but couldn't help himself, "…alright, Melony?"

She grinned slightly at his inability to use her name, even at a time like this. Suddenly, the memory of her persistent nightmares rushed to her mind. Immediately Rihoko took notice of the frightened look on her mother's face and asked, "Mom?"

Masane contrived a smile as best she could and turned to Yusuke, "Hey Tozawa, could you take Riko outside for just a minute?"

"No mom!" Rihoko barked as she firmly affixed herself to her mother's body again. "I'm not letting you go ever again!"

"It's ok, Riko," Masane laughed. "I just need to talk to Mr. Takayama alone for a minute. Mommy will be right here when you get back, I promise."

Rihoko slowly let go of Masane and while she still looked angry as could be, she let her mom off the hook, but only just, "Fine! You've got one minute! Don't be mad at dad!"

"Promise," Masane reassured her.

As Rihoko dismounted the bed to join Tozawa, Yusuka looked back to Masane who wore her seriousness on her face. Not wanting to upset him, she offered him the slightest of smiles and a nod.

"I'll be going too," Segawa added.

"Wait, Segawa!" Takayama replied in childish fear of being left alone with Masane.

As the door slipped closed behind Tozawa, Rihoko and Segawa, Reiji slowly approached Masane and quietly asked, "How are you feeling?"

The memories of her nightmares consumed her thoughts. She looked to her wrist, to the scar that resided where the witchblade once had, and replied, "I'm different now."

Takayama's eyes closed as he replied, "Yes. The best we can tell from the data we were able to collect before you came back, is that the witchblade has bound itself to you on a genetic level. I would like to run some…" Takayama let his thought go as he observed Masane. He thought he'd never lay eyes on her beautiful face ever again, and once more, he found himself incapable of caring about the how or why. All he knew for certain was that Masane was among the living once again. They had their second chance at a life together, but before that could ever happen, he needed to get his guilt off his chest, "I'm sorry, Masane."

"Sorry for what?" She asked, knowing full well the discussion that was coming.

"Rihoko," he replied with his head bowed in shame. "I failed; failed to fill your shoes, failed to fill the role of a good father."

Masane quickly pushed the thought of her nightmare aside and replied, "You don't have to be so hard on yourself."

Takayama's fists balled up in anger as he replied, "But you entrusted her to me. Trusted me to take care of her, to watch after her, and I-"

"You what?" Masane interrupted, not in anger but in questioning the expectations Takayama had placed on himself. "The both of you had just a few days to let it settle in that you're father and daughter before I…" She caught herself, unsure of how to describe what had happened to her. She pushed the memory aside and finished her thought, "Riko and I were together for six years; it's only natural that the two of you still had a ways to go before you got used to each other."

"I know, I just wish-"

She interrupted him, grabbing a hold of his tie and pulling his lips down to hers. While he was caught off guard at first, his eyes closed and his hands delicately found her face as they shared a delicate kiss. Finally, they pulled apart from one another, and he took a seat on the bed beside her. He looked to her vacant wrist and asked, "Do you remember anything about where you were?"

Her dreams replayed in her mind as she spoke, "Where I was…" She searched for a way to explain the dreams she experienced, "…I was fighting with…myself."

"Fighting with yourself?" Takayama asked.

"I really don't know how else to describe it," Masane replied. "Immediately after the tower, the first thing I remember was waking up in the middle of some kind of forest. The witchblade is gone from my wrist and Riko…" She welled up slightly, "…Riko is calling for me."

"You go to look for her," Reiji concluded.

Masane nodded and continued to explain, "I follow her voice through the woods, but when I come to a clearing, I don't hear her anymore. Then I see myself baring the witchblade, the form I took towards the end."

"The witchblade's true form."

"Where I was, I was just me," Masane explained as her tears ran free. "I had no armor, no special powers. That creature killed me…" Takayama's eyes doubled in size, "…over and over again."

"How did you escape?"

"I…" the memory of being enveloped by the new black armor replayed in her mind. "…I'm not sure. Something happened, something new came over me."

Suddenly, the door to the room slid open and Rihoko barged, "Time's up you two!"

Masane wiped her tears and quickly put a grin on as Rihoko joined her mother and father on the bed. Tozawa and Segawa followed her in and Segawa offered with a smile, "I'm sorry, sir. We tried to stop her, but Miss Rihoko can be very persuasive."

"That's right!" Rihoko replied with a smile. "Can we go home now, mom?"

Masane looked to Reiji and Rihoko followed suit as Masane asked, "Well that depends; where _is_ home now, Riko?"

"Hmmm…" Rihoko raised a finger to her temple as she thought for a moment. She looked to Reiji, then back to Tozawa, "…while I really like dad's house, Miss Mariko's is where _we_ live."

"I don't know, Riko. I think it might be best-"

Reiji interrupted Masane with his typical scowl, though he was not angry in the least, "I'll have her things returned to the Natsuki building immediately."

"Wait, are you sure?" Masane asked.

"Absolutely," Reiji replied. "Rihoko should be where _she_ is the most comfortable. If that is at Mariko's, I'm in no position to tell her otherwise." Finally a slight smile appeared on his lips as he finished his thought, "Besides, it's not like we can't visit each other."

Rihoko leaned to her father and wrapped her arms around him. Takayama was again caught off guard, but quickly returned the gesture, carefully placing his hands around Rihoko as she quietly spoke, "Thanks dad."

Masane simply smiled at their display. As Reiji's eyes met hers, she silently mouthed out to him, _"Thank you."_

* * *

A suited man's fist slammed into a table in the boardroom at Doji Group's headquarters, "What were you thinking Irazawa? Not only have you assembled us at this ungodly hour, but you've killed one of the Neogenes?"

Another of the men stood from the table and barked, "The Neogenes are absolutely essential to our research on the witchblade! We were fortunate to have acquired them from the NSWF in the first place; we can't afford to lose any of them!"

Irazawa leaned back in his chair as he nonchalantly replied, "The both of you forget your place. Our business has always been making weapons, gentlemen. With the data we've collected in this most recent experiment-"

"You're calling the murder of one of the sisters an experiment?" One of the men shouted.

Finally, Irazawa stood from his seat and calmly addressed the board, "We are at the forefront of creating the ultimate soldier, gentlemen. The Neogene program will allow us to produce expendable soldiers at a low-"

"Are you mad?"

Irazawa closed his eyes and calmly addressed the last interruption he was willing to entertain, "No, gentlemen. I am standing at the head of a company that has just taken a forty percent drop in its stock value. Our shares lose value by the minute, and without a revolutionary new offering, we stand to lose the company to the public."

"But engineering Neogenes for the sole purpose of sending them off to be killed?"

"Who is to say they will be killed, Takeda?" Irazawa asked. "Before the NSWF was dissolved, they took massive strides in their cloneblade program, producing a blade that could be dual wielded." There was a subtle murmuring around the room as the board members absorbed this revelation.

Another of the men spoke, however with none of the hostility the other board members harbored, "With all due respect, I've read the reports from the NSWF. It appears as though the Neogenes equipped with dual blades were difficult to control. If we were to go through with this initiative, turn fresh Neogenes into cloneblade equipped soldiers, what makes you think you can control them?"

Irazawa smiled snidely as he replied, "An excellent question, Keiichi."

* * *

Tozawa, Masane and Rihoko stepped out of the backseat of Takayama's vehicle. Masane stepped to the front passenger door and asked Tozawa, "Could you please take Riko inside, I'll be right there."

Even though it hurt him so badly, Tozawa knew why she wanted privacy. He cared so much for Masane, but after all that had happened, he accepted their relationship. Reiji was Rihoko's real father, and he knew it was only right that he and Masane were together. He smiled and replied, "C'mon Melony. He's her father; she's allowed to see the two of you kiss."

Masane blushed slightly and turned back to Reiji. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before leaning towards one another to join their smiles. While Tozawa frowned slightly, he couldn't help but be happy for Masane and Rihoko. All Masane ever wanted was to be able to provide for her daughter, and now that the witchblade had chosen her to bare it once again, she could.

Masane and Reiji pulled away from each other and Takayama spoke to her, "If you need anything, if you experience any changes during the night or need to talk; if you need anything at all, please call me."

"I will," Masane replied.

She stepped away from the vehicle and Takayama bid her farewell, "Goodnight, Masane."

"Goodnight, Reiji."

Before the vehicle could pull away, Rihoko jumped onto the running board and wrapped her arms around her father through the window. Again he held his daughter as she too said her goodbyes, "Goodnight, dad."

"Goodnight, Rihoko," Reiji quietly replied.

Rihoko stepped down and ran back to Masane's side. As Segawa pulled Takayama's car away from Mariko's, Rihoko called out once more, "Love you, daddy!"

Both Masane and Tozawa's eyes widened at what Rihoko had said, and to think Takayama was worried that Rihoko hadn't taken to him. She smiled slightly and turned back to Tozawa.

"So what do you say, Melony?"

"Huh?"

"Should we wake up the whole gang?" Tozawa asked.

Masane chuckled slightly and looked down to Rihoko. Her daughter wavered slightly and her eyes flickered, "I think Rihoko and I should be getting to bed for the night." She looked back up to Yusuke and asked, "Hey Tozawa?"

He stopped before heading through the doors and turned back to Masane, "What's up?"

"If you happen to come down before us tomorrow morning, don't tell anyone I'm back, alright?"

Tozawa wore his confusion on his face and replied, "Uh…yeah sure."

"Thanks," Masane replied with a smile. "Goodnight, Tozawa."

Masane proceeded towards him to enter Mariko's, but as she approached him, Tozawa had something on his mind. His expression flattened slightly before he stepped towards Masane.

She faltered slightly and asked, "What are you-"

Without warning or permission, he gently wrapped his arms around her and her eyes nearly doubled in size. He had never offered her any display of affection, save for the occasional rude glance, but as he held her, neither of them felt anything but happiness at having the other back in their life. "I defended you till the end, Masane."

As if his kind gesture weren't enough, the use of her name was more than enough to gain her complete attention, "What do you-"

"The press wanted to write you…" he corrected himself, "…the other you off as a monster. I made sure nothing of the sort ever made it to print."

Masane was taken back by what he had done for her. She knew he cared for her and Rihoko, and her gratitude for all he had done for her was immeasurable. She reached her free hand behind him and too held him close to her as she spoke, "Yusuke…"

He pulled away from her and quickly brushed off their moment, "Don't mention it, Melony." He stepped back to the door and said his goodbyes, "Goodnight."

As he stepped into the building, Masane bid him a quiet farewell, "Goodnight, Tozawa." She looked down to Rihoko who was all but sleeping while standing up. She picked her daughter up and headed into the building.

In their apartment, Masane laid Rihoko down in her bed, her eyes desperately fighting to stay open. Rihoko had spent three days without her mother and didn't want to miss a second of her company. "I can stay awake mom, I'm not even tired," Rihoko weakly muttered as her eyes fell shut.

Masane smiled lightly as she lay beside her daughter who had finally given in to the sandman. She missed her so much; a part of her didn't want to allow Rihoko to sleep. She placed a kiss on Rihoko's forehead and whispered, "Sweet dreams, baby."

Masane quietly retrieved a fresh set of pajamas from the dresser behind their bed and walked to the bathroom. Being gone for so long, Masane longed for the simple things she had missed. She slipped into her pajamas, and as she looked to her toothbrush and cup that rested at the side of the sink as they always had, the state of the apartment finally registered. Her eyes widened slightly as she stepped back into the apartment and glanced over it. For all Mariko hemmed and hawed about putting her and Rihoko up in the first place, she hadn't touched a thing, even after both Masane and Rihoko were gone. A smile came across her lips and she returned to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

When she came back to Rihoko's bed, she found her daughter had rolled onto her side and her hair shifted onto her face in the process. Masane lay beside her once again and brushed the stray strands from Rihoko's face. As her eyes rose to the nightstand, she focused on the shell Rihoko had given her the day she died. She carefully leaned over Rihoko and took the shell into her palm. Her eyes welled slightly and a single thought resonated in her mind, _"I don't know what's happening to me, but as long as I'm alive, nothing will keep me from you ever again, Riko." _

* * *

Just as Segawa pulled Reiji's car to the door of his home, Takayama's cellphone rang. He raised it into view and at the sight of the caller ID immediately pressed it to his ear, "Masane, is everything alright?" She was silent for a moment as she stood in the kitchen of the apartment, and again Reiji asked, "Masane?"

"I need to know what's happened to me," Masane replied. Her eyes locked on the foot of the bed as she spoke, "I can't do this to her again. Whatever you need from me, tests, research, samples, studies; I don't care."

"We still don't know the current state of the witchblade, it may very well still be dormant," Reiji offered.

Masane looked to her wrist as she spoke, "It's not dormant…" Takayama's eyes widened as she continued, "…I can feel its power coursing throughout my body. It's just a matter of time before it makes its presence known."

"That may be the case, but the data we logged tonight leads me to believe that the witchblade itself has evolved. Not only might we be looking at a whole new set of rules, but if it _has_ bound itself to you as we believe it has, than removing has become even less of an option."

"If you were to remove the witchblade, than I'd be right back at square one; no job and no money to take care of Riko."

"You know I'll never let it come to that, Masane," Takayama replied. "I can help you if you let me."

She smiled as she softly replied, "I know, but _you_ know Doji still has lost ex-cons out there, not to mention any loose ends left by the NSWF. I'm the only one that can deal with them."

Takayama leaned back in his seat, "So what do you suggest we do?"

"Testing, research, anything you need that will tell us more about what's happening to me, what _will_ happen to me if I continue to use the witchblade."

"As you wish," Reiji replied.

"Thank you, and one more thing," Masane requested.

"What's that?"

"In my off-time, when there isn't an ex-con or a Neogene to be dealt with, I want to train."

"Train?" Reiji asked.

"The less I'm forced to rely on the witchblade, the slower it will be in its breakdown of my body, right?"

Takayama smiled just slightly, "Have I ever told you, you're amazing?"

"Nope," Masane replied warmly. "Goodnight."


	5. Normal

The following morning, with the exception of Takayama, all of the Doji Group's higher-ups, members of affiliate companies, as well as several of their best clients sat in an assembly hall. As the lights in the room dimmed, the conversations throughout were silenced. Irazawa took the stage with his new assistant, Keiichi in tow.

Seiji placed his hands on the podium, cleared his throat and spoke, "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Today, it is my privilege to show you our very latest development. So new in fact that our research on this project was completed only a few short hours ago. Without any further adieu, please allow me to welcome to the stage, the young and very beautiful, Mio."

A pale young lady stepped onto the stage, wrapped in a coat that covered her from neck to toe. She was perhaps as tall as the podium Irazawa stood at, and her long blonde hair nearly touched the ground. She couldn't have been any older than Maria or Aoi, yet her movements were both graceful and absolute. She didn't waver or falter; she merely approached the edge of the stage and stood motionless.

Irazawa smiled as he observed the child, "Gentlemen, I present to you, the future of your armies; the Neogene soldier." While collective disbelief passed over the room, Irazawa continued to explain, "As you may, or may not know, the Neogenes commissioned by the NSWF were bred specifically for combat. Bone and muscle density are far greater than that of any mere human, and combined with the latest advances in cortical stimulation, are completely controllable."

The crowd instantly broke out into a frenzy of criticisms that brought Irazawa to calmly address his peers, "I predicted your skepticism. In fact, I'm sure there isn't a man among you who doesn't believe they could destroy this little girl in a single blow." A click echoed throughout the room signifying the exits had all locked. As everyone in the room looked around in panic, Irazawa spoke, "With that, I'd invite anyone who believes this to be a joke, to come up to the stage and kill this little girl."

"You're crazy!" A man in the front row barked.

"Am I, Takeda? Perhaps you would care to take part in my little demonstration," Irazawa threatened.

"I'll take your challenge!" A man in the back shouted.

Irazawa looked up to him and smiled, "Ah, Sheik Ahmed, please come down. Gentlemen, make room for him please."

The crowd parted and Ahmed ascended the stairs onto the stage. Mio's hollow eyes followed him every step of the way, yet she didn't flinch, tremble, or even appear in the least bit afraid. Ahmed turned to Irazawa and Seiji merely nodded to the Sheik. Apparently frustrated with what he had deemed nothing more than a stunt on Irazawa's behalf, Ahmed channeled all of his anger into his fists as he charged the little girl.

Without even removing her hands from her long sleeves, she elegantly evaded every one of the Sheik's attacks. With the Sheik out of breath, Irazawa chuckled slightly, "And to think, she hasn't even broken a sweat yet, Ahmed." He retrieved a rather long sheathed knife from behind the podium and threw it to Ahmed, "Go ahead; try again. Surely with a blade in your hands you'll be able to at least make contact with her."

Looking even more enraged, Ahmed again threw himself at the child and again with barely any effort she avoided him. This time though, he wouldn't allow his exhaustion to stop him. His anger grew until he finally attempted to simply overpower the girl. He threw himself onto her, knocking her flat on her back. He raised the blade and as he brought it down to her chest with every ounce of strength he had, her transformation occurred.

Long strands of her golden blonde hair whipped around his blade holding hand, keeping it from reaching her. The pure white armor that had enveloped her was laced with black streaks and lines, and at the very sight of it, Ahmed barked in disbelief, "What the hell?"

With the simplest of gestures, Mio slammed her hands into his chest knocking him back and off of her. She gracefully stood from the floor and finally, the animalistic nature of the blades she wielded took over. She let out a deep roar as she extended her blade and charged him. While Ahmed was frozen in fear, Irazawa called out, "That's enough, Mio!"

She stopped mere inches from running her blade through Ahmed's face, and he fell to the ground in horror of what he'd just witnessed. Looking out to the room, the crowd was stunned to silence at the display. Wearing a confident smile, Irazawa concluded the meeting, "Thank you for your time gentlemen. Production begins later this year, and will be available on a first come, first serve basis. All those interested in placing a bid however, my new assistant will speak with you presently. Good day, gentlemen."

The crowd erupted with the roaring of dollar amounts as Irazawa walked from the stage. As he stepped to his assistant, Keiichi softly spoke, "Well done, sir."

"Thank you, Keiichi. I believe this may be the start of a beautiful friendship."

* * *

Masane tossed and turned as she lay in her bed. She almost looked as though she were in the heat of battle as she shifted about. Finally, her eyes shattered open and her body sprung upright. She sat for a moment, gasping for breath as her dreams ran through her mind, when from the kitchen; Rihoko appeared holding a skillet containing an omelet, "Mom?"

Masane quickly turned to face her daughter, and washed all of her panic off of her face. She smiled and lightly replied, "Good morning, Riko."

"Mom, are you alright?" Rihoko asked with a concerned look and tone.

"Yeah baby, mommy's fine. I had a bad dream, that's all."

Rihoko smiled and replied, "I'm making breakfast for us, are you hungry?"

In a matter of a heartbeat, Masane remembered her last meal with Rihoko. For as long as she could remember, her daughter's cooking was nothing short of sublime, and only got better as she learned. Yet Masane's last meal with her daughter would be one she never tasted due to her breakdown. Yet as she sat there, the simple memory of brushing her teeth a few hours earlier came to her. A wide grin passed over her lips knowing her sense of taste had returned, "You know I'm always hungry for your food, Riko!"

"It'll be ready in a minute!"

"I'm coming sweetie," Masane replied as Rihoko stepped back into the kitchen. She climbed out of bed and walked up behind Rihoko in the kitchen. Her daughter stood atop the milk crates, just finishing the omelet when Masane carefully reached around her to give her a tight hug. While she was pleasantly surprised, Rihoko giggled as she squirmed, "Mom! I don't want to burn the eggs."

She placed a kiss on Rihoko's head and quietly spoke, "I love you, Riko."

Rihoko turned away from her cooking for a moment and replied, "Love you, mom"

* * *

Just a few minutes after devouring Rihoko's delicious breakfast, Masane and Rihoko quietly entered Marry's café, hand-in-hand. Looking at everyone while she was still just out sight, Mr. Chou, Naomi, even Mariko; Masane struggled to keep her tears back. Rihoko looked up to her mom and asked, "Are you ready?"

A confident smile overtook Masane's lips and she gave her daughter a nod. They quietly walked into the café and Masane nonchalantly asked, "Hey Mariko, can I have a cup of coffee?"

Paying as little attention as possible, Mariko replied, "Sure thing, Melony."

Mr. Chou and Naomi immediately perked up and asked in unison, "Melony?"

Finally it registered for Mariko as well, "Melony?"

"Hey everyone," Masane replied with a smile and a wave.

"But how…" Mariko began only to get lost in her words, "…how are you…"

"Mom had to leave for a while, but she's back now," Rihoko answered with a grin.

"But how-"

Masane shot her a look that silenced her immediately. The expression on her face telling that they'd get their answers in time, but right now, this was about making Rihoko comfortable once again.

"Oh who cares, Marry?" Chou replied after a short silence. He wrapped his arms around Masane as he had when he first met her and continued, "With Melony back, we can all hang out again!"

"Thank you," she quietly whispered in Chou's ear.

While the dirty old man that was Chou certainly loved having Masane's curvaceous body pressed up against his, he offered her a gentle pat on the back as he quietly replied, "Good to have you back, kiddo."

Of course it would only be a matter of time before Masane was forced to politely remove him from her. As Chou took his seat, Masane turned to find Naomi right beside her. She flinched slightly as Naomi cheerfully spoke, "All of the signs are good for a change. Welcome back, Masane!"

"Hear that, mom?" Rihoko asked. A groggy Tozawa stepped into the room as Rihoko happily continued, "You're back, dad's got his job back, and we can be a family again!"

At seeing him out of the corner of her eye, Mariko shouted, "Tozawa! Melony's back!"

"Yeah I know," Tozawa replied.

"What?" Everyone in the room asked, save for Masane and Rihoko obviously.

Masane shot him a look as well, though Tozawa never had any intention of getting into what had happened last night in front of Rihoko. He looked to Mariko and shook his head as he asked, "Cup of coffee, Marry?"

Tozawa took his seat at the bar and Marry spoke, just loud enough for Tozawa to hear her, "The both of you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Not in front of Rihoko," Tozawa quietly replied.

Yusuke turned back to Masane and Rihoko, and as they laughed and joked with Mr. Chou and Naomi, his thoughts from the previous night were reaffirmed. Of course he wished for more between him and Masane, but seeing her smiling and with Rihoko once more, he would settle for her company any way he could get it.

* * *

Irazawa sat behind his desk later that afternoon. Scattered across his desktop were folders filled to the brim with research on the witchblade, the multiple versions of the NSWF cloneblade, as well as the Masaya Wadou's short-lived ultimateblade.

Across the room, Keiichi finished up with a phone call, "Yes, thank you." He stepped to Irazawa's desk and informed him of his conversation, "That was Dr. Michiba from Takayama's division."

Irazawa's attention didn't detract from his work as he asked, "Yes?"

"Apparently, the witchblade somehow brought Miss Amaha back last night," Keiichi replied.

Immediately Irazawa's eyes doubled in size and his complete attention was on Keiichi, "What?"

"None of the team has any idea what triggered the transformation, but apparently, her crystallized remains…" He looked to his notes, "…blackened throughout before shattering, leaving Miss Amaha exactly as she was before her final transformation four days ago."

"The amount of energy it must have expelled would explain the power fluctuations we measured last night," Irazawa replied. "What about the witchblade? Is it in tact?"

"The current condition of the witchblade is still unknown. All of Takayama and Michiba's findings lead us to believe that aside from bringing Miss Amaha back, the witchblade is dormant."

"I see," Irazawa replied. He looked to the paperwork on his desk, and retrieved the file on the ultimateblade. "Keiichi?"

"Yes sir?"

"You've been over the research concerning the multiple cloneblades, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"What about the ultimateblade?"

"The ultimateblade was the first and last development made by Director Wadou's Bio Division; a cloneblade that could be wielded by a man. Our only knowledge of the only ultimateblade produced is that he joined it with his assistant, Yagi. His current whereabouts are unknown at this time."

"More than likely destroyed by the witchblade," Irazawa replied. "Bring me the team that developed the ultimateblade prototype."

"Right away, sir."

* * *

At his home, Reiji Takayama sat on his couch. His cellphone to his ear, he asked, "Are you sure about this? You just came back."

"I'm sure," Masane replied as she watched Rihoko with Mr. Chou and Naomi. "I want to be ready for whatever comes my way. I can't lose her again, Reiji."

Takayama closed his eyes and replied, "I understand. I'll have Segawa setup a light training exercise at our facility this afternoon."

"Thank you."

"_Masane?"_ Reiji asked.

"Yes?"

"_Would you and Rihoko care to join me for dinner tonight?"_

Any other day, Masane might have blushed, or been caught off guard by Takayama's dinner proposal. However, on this day, as she observed the carefree grin on her daughter's face, Masane simply smiled as she replied, "We'd love to."

A look of relief passed over Reiji as he replied, "I'll see you two tonight then." He hung up and almost immediately brought the phone back to his ear, "Segawa…"

Masane clicked the end button, and joined her daughter and Mr. Chou. A plate of their morning leftovers sat in front of Chou, and as he stuffed his face, he spoke, "We've sure missed your cuisine around here, Rihoko! Is that paprika I taste?"

"Yep!" Rihoko replied, "My friends down at the market threw some in for free with my last order!"

"Well let me tell you, it makes a great dish even better!" Chou exclaimed with a wide grin.

"Thanks," Rihoko replied. A slight frown crossed over her lips, "Unfortunately that was all I had. Since we've been gone, I haven't stocked up on supplies."

"Would you like me to take you to the market, Riko?" Masane asked.

Immediately Rihoko perked up, "No I can go myself."

"Are you sure?" Masane asked.

"Uh-huh," Rihoko replied. "You can still leave the cooking to me, mom."

Masane smiled and ran her hand over Rihoko's hair, "Anything you say princess Rihoko."

Rihoko smiled and jumped from her seat. She slipped her backpack over her shoulders and spoke, "I think I'll go now so I can be back in time to make us lunch."

Masane flinched slightly and replied, "Oh Riko, I'm sorry. I need to meet with Mr. Taka…" she corrected herself, "…I mean with your dad for a little while today."

"Oh," Rihoko replied looking most upset.

"I know!" Masane exclaimed, instantly bring Rihoko to perk up. "Your dad wanted to have dinner with us tonight. If you like, you could prepare a meal for us," Masane replied.

"You don't think dad will mind?"

"Of course not," Masane replied with a smile. "As soon as he takes one bite of your food, he'll never eat out again!"

"I'll go get all the ingredients I need so I can get started right away. That way when you and dad come back from your meeting, we'll be ready to eat!"

Masane stood from her seat, "I'll come with-"

"No," Rihoko interrupted as she crossed her arms into an 'X'. She pushed her mother back into her seat and finished her thought, "You've had a rough couple of days. You stay here and relax until your meeting. Just leave everything to me." Rihoko turned and headed out the door before Masane could possibly tell her otherwise.

"Glad to see some things never change," Mariko commented. Masane turned to face her, and just like that, the smiles and laughs about the room were gone.

With Rihoko gone, all eyes were on Masane and almost perfectly on cue; Tozawa returned to the cafe and felt the stillness that hung in the air, "Boy, I sure have my timing down."

Masane looked up to him and asked, "Care to join me for this?"

He offered no reply, but did take the seat beside Masane. She looked down and away from her friends as she spoke, "You want to know what happened to me. The truth is not even I entirely understand what's happened to me. I don't have much to offer any of you in the way of answers, all I can tell you is what I know." Masane's eyes rose to take in the faces of her friends and continued, "None of it can ever leave this room, none of it will be easy to hear, and none of you are ever to tell any of this to Riko."

"After what we saw that last day, believe me; we're all ears, Melony," Mariko replied.

* * *

"What you're attempting to do, it goes against all theory and reason," a scientist calmly attempted to explain to Irazawa. "The ex-cons themselves were developed using technology we derived from our testing with the witchblade. Fitting an ex-con with a blade of its own is-"

"Brilliant," Keiichi interrupted.

"Thank you, Keiichi," Irazawa replied. He stood from the seat in his office and walked around to the scientists that sat opposite him. "Let me ask you gentlemen; before Wadou had asked you to engineer a blade that could be worn by a man, you thought it to be impossible, did you not?"

"Yes but this is different," another of the scientists replied. "The organic material that comprises an ex-con is hardly enough for a blade to bond with."

"Have you tried?" Irazawa simply asked. The scientists stumbled as they all began to utter off what could only be read as excuses. "Just as I thought. Gentlemen, I would like you to retrieve a single ex-con and begin experimentation immediately."

"Sir, simply bringing the two together could result in the ex-con becoming completely uncontrollable," a scientist offered.

"How you go about sedating the ex-con so that a cloneblade may be joined with it is not my concern. Need I remind you that there will be substantial compensation if this proves to be possible; I suggest you get to work," Irazawa replied.

* * *

In the middle of the expansive training facility Takayama had first unleashed Masane in; she walked the false streets, waiting for her exercise to begin. Unlike that first time, she wore an earpiece that connected her directly to the observation room.

"_How are you doing?"_ Reiji asked over her earpiece.

She turned to face the observation room and wore a slight smile, "So far so good."

"_Do you feel anything?"_

"Something's on the move."

"_Correct. We're moving an iWeapon through the underground tunnels. Can you feel which way it's headed?"_

Masane turned knowing full well that he could see her every move. She raised her hand, pointing in front of her, "There."

At the far end of the corner, a door lowered revealing the iWeapon in question. Immediately Masane's left hand flew to her right wrist, and a shriek emanated from her lips as she doubled over in pain.

"_Masane! Are you alright?"_ Reiji asked.

She struggled to speak, "It's just like the first time. But something…" she groaned in pain as she spoke, "…something's different."

"_What Masane? What is-" _

The sight of Masane's transformation interrupted Reiji. She had gone from plain clothed, directly to the true form of the witchblade. Within seconds, her cries of pain had turned into light pleasure laced gasps for air. She stood completely motionless, as the lumbering iWeapon slowly encroached on her.


	6. Danger

Reiji stood mesmerized by the nature of Masane's transformation. He turned to Segawa and asked, "Are you still collecting data?"

"Yes sir, Masane's vitals are not only stable, but almost seem lethargic at the moment," Segawa replied.

"Masane?" Reiji again asked.

On the false street of this false cityscape, Masane calmly spoke, the witchblade's additional harmonic overtone ringing through in her voice, "Reiji…" Just the sound of her voice was enough to send a chill up Takayama's spine. She slowed her breathing and focused, "…this form; it sped up the witchblade's consumption of my body didn't it?"

"_Our data had indicated that to be the case."_

"And the data you're looking at now, what does it suggest?" Masane calmly asked; her tone still infused with ecstasy.

The charts displayed on Segawa's monitors continued to refresh at consistently higher values as Takayama replied, "The numbers are incredible. Higher than we've ever recorded."

As the iWeapon drew increasingly closer to Masane, the witchblade's influence coursed through her stronger than she'd ever felt. Beneath her breathing, a perverse smile formed on her lips as her tongue passed over them, "Just wait."

"Masane, wait!" Reiji shouted.

Her right heal dug into the pavement as she pushed off towards the iWeapon. As with her first encounter, the iWeapon began with its most basic offense, using its turret to fire a single massive shell at her. Her rapid gallop didn't slow or deviate in the least, as the projectile grew closer. Within inches of the projectile, a growl emanated from her lips as she extended the blade on her right arm, and cut the shell in half.

"Incredible," Reiji commented in the observation room, as Masane's performance numbers continued to grow even higher.

Now too close to attack, the iWeapon reversed in an attempt to evade her. However, unlike her first encounter, the witchblade's true form was too fast for the hulking machine. Masane simply swiped her right blade through the barrel of the turret and quickly extended the other. She took a wide swing with her left blade, cutting effortlessly through the iWeapon, and ceasing its movement entirely.

"What happened?" Segawa asked in the observation room.

"Masane?" Reiji asked.

As the dust they had kicked up cleared, Masane merely stood before the iWeapon. Her clothes had returned to normal, though the blade on her left arm remained extended to her side. She retracted the blade, and as it dissolved into her arm, the iWeapon finally slid apart. She turned back to the observation room and placed a finger to her earpiece, "Did you get that?"

"We got it," Reiji replied as he stepped to an elevator in the observation room. "I'll bring you up in just a minute so we can check your physical condition now that you've undergone a transformation. We'll take another full body scan to see if we can exactly pinpoint any areas of immediate concern."

"Right," Masane replied before turning back to the remains of the iWeapon that lay on the ground before her. She'd almost forgotten the power the witchblade lent her. She looked down to her wrist and once again, the jewel encrusted entity resided on her arm. She smiled slightly as she looked upon it and quietly spoke, "Think you can play nice this time?"

* * *

Several minutes later in a separate room within the compound, Masane slid out from an MRI-like machine. As soon as the table locked in place, she sat up and turned to Takayama and Segawa, "Well let's hear the bad news." Segawa and Takayama continued to stare blankly at the data, and immediately Masane lost her patience, "Earth to Takayama, earth to Segawa; anybody home?" Still they ignored her, and finally she stood from the table and barked, "Hello?"

Both Takayama and Segawa's heads perked up, and Reiji spoke, "It's rather remarkable."

"Huh?" Masane asked inquisitively.

"Come look," Segawa replied.

She stepped over to the desk Segawa sat at, and he pointed to a graph, which overlaid numerous statistics. He pointed to one of the lines and explained, "This represents the progression of your physical health during your previous time with the witchblade."

The line clearly showed the gradual failure of her body, as well as the sharp decline she experienced towards the end, using the witchblade's true power. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she asked, "Alright, what about the other two?"

Takayama pointed to the next line graph and explained, "This curve indicates the energy output of the witchblade in kilojoules. You can clearly see the increase in power the witchblade's true form offers you."

Though the line was nearly a perfect inverse of her physical condition, the increase in power was exponential to that of her physical degradation.

"And that last line?" Masane asked.

"Represents the current state of your normal physical health," Segawa replied.

Masane's eyes doubled in size; the readout was nearly double what it had previously been at this stage. "But how is that possible?"

"We've all said it, and now we have proof," Reiji replied. "The witchblade has evolved into something even more powerful, and it has not forsaken you this time, Masane. Your physical condition is in a word; flawless."

* * *

A deactivated ex-con lay on a table within a lab at Doji Group headquarters. Just beside it, an ultimateblade rested in a sealed container with numerous leads attached to several parts of it. From an observation room off the side of the lab, Irazawa stood with Keiichi at his left and Mio at his right. They watched on as the creators of the ultimateblade attempted to alter the genetic sequences as required to allow the ex-con to mate with the blade.

"Well, here goes," a scientist muttered as his fingers danced about a keyboard. Within a few moments, an error message appeared on the screen in front of him, "Incompatible." It was the first of numerous and varied negative scenarios the computer would run through. "Unstable. Mismatch. Sequence Error. Etc…"

After an hour of simulation, the computer operator was now merely ticking off how many times he had gotten particular error messages. His chin rested in his palm, bored with his assigned task, when a new message suddenly appeared. At the sight of the operator flinching, Irazawa's eyes narrowed and he pressed a finger to the intercom, "What is it?"

Terror washed over his face as the operator replied, "We've got a new reading."

"Yes, what is it?" Irazawa asked.

"Danger."

Irazawa smiled and replied, "Proceed."

"Sir are you sure-"

"What's the matter, Keiichi?" Irazawa scolded as he turned to face his assistant.

Immediately Keiichi backed down, and quietly finished his thought, "Are we certain this is safe?"

Irazawa kept his calm as best he could before turning back to the intercom, "Double check that ex-con's protocols. I don't want any surprises when it's activated."

Somewhat relieved that a measure of reason had been brought to their experiment, the scientist replied, "Yes sir."

As he watched the scientist collect his data, Irazawa turned to Mio as he silently contemplated the scenario, _"I've no doubt Mio will be able to disable this ex-con should it become uncontrollable. We must proceed."_

* * *

"Tada!" Rihoko shouted as she unveiled the dinner she had prepared for her mother and father. For such a young girl, Rihoko was nothing short of a master chef. The spread she had prepared was so expansive; it could have served everyone in the Natsuki building. "To start off, we have stewed beef with potatoes and carrots in a miso broth. Next, we have shredded beef teriyaki with cold noodles and bean sprouts. For the main course, I made a sherry glazed steak filet with wasabi mashed potatoes."

While Rihoko's tendency to go overboard with her cooking was nothing new to Masane, the look of amazement on Reiji's face was priceless. "You really cooked and set all of this up, all by yourself, Rihoko?"

"Uh-huh!" She replied happily.

"But…" Reiji began, still lost in awe of the elegantly prepared cuisine before him, "…everything looks so good; I almost feel guilty for eating it."

"That's my girl," Masane replied.

"Care for some wine, dad?" Rihoko asked.

"Where did you get wine, Riko?" Masane asked.

"I borrowed a bottle of Merlot from Mariko," Rihoko replied with a smile. "It ought to go great with these dishes."

Continuously amazed by his daughter's seemingly endless culinary knowledge, Reiji replied with his best efforts to smile, "Uh…sure, thank you."

Rihoko poured her father a glass of wine and Masane tilted her glass in Rihoko's direction, only for her daughter to place a can of soda in front of her. Masane's eyes widened and she attempted to speak, "But, Riko I-"

"No alcohol for you mom! You can't hold your liquor!" Riko scolded lightly.

At Rihoko's comment, Reiji's guard finally came down and he burst out laughing. Of course this brought Masane to shoot him a glare, "Hey, that's not true!"

"Oh really? Maybe we should ask Mr. Chou and Mr. Tozawa?" Rihoko threatened.

Masane chuckled lightly in embarrassment at Rihoko calling her out as she had. Still, Masane couldn't help but laugh; Rihoko truly was the mother in their relationship. She reached to the can of soda her daughter had given her and replied, "She does know me well."

Rihoko finally took her seat at the table and as she looked to her mother and father, she quietly spoke, "Bon appetite."

Time flew as Rihoko and Masane shared stories of their life together with Takayama. Hardened as he was, listening to the stories of their antics broke down his chiseled exterior with minimal effort. He smiled, he laughed; he felt like he'd always been a part of their family.

Hours later, Masane watched Reiji as he put Rihoko to sleep for the night. He took such care and delicacy in laying her down and tucking her in. Masane knew that as much as he had beat himself up over his short time alone with Rihoko, he did the very best he could. As Rihoko had the night before, she squirmed about in an effort to stay awake, "Honest dad, I'm not even tired."

Takayama's smile still firmly replaced his scowl as he brought her blanket to her neck. He simply stared at his little girl as her eyes finally closed for the night. "Sweet dreams, Rihoko."

He stood from her bedside and turned to find Masane seated at the table, staring at him with glassed over eyes. Masane's eyes followed him as he walked over to her and took the seat across from her, the same seat he had during dinner. "You're better with her than you give yourself credit for, you know?"

Reiji's scowl failed to reappear as he replied, "She makes it easy. She's a great kid."

"The greatest," Masane corrected with a warm smile. She could see clear as day that Reiji had something on his mind. His scowl had slowly returned to his lips and his eyes dropped to the table. "What is it?"

"Masane…" he began only to get lost in his thoughts. She could feel where he was going, but didn't want to push him. Whatever he had to say, she needed him to say it on his own. His eyes met hers once again and he continued, "…what we have together; what is it?"

"It's whatever we need it to be," Masane replied. "You're Riko's father, I'm her mother…" a slightly provocative smile passed over her lips, "…we clearly seem to enjoy each other's company. I just…"

Seeing that she'd hit a wall, Reiji asked, "You just what?"

"I never want to have to say goodbye to the people I love, again."

* * *

In the Doji lab in which Irazawa was conducting his experiment, the scientists in the operating room double-checked the ex-cons restraints. They had raised the still deactivated unit upright, and fitted the gauntlet to its arm. All precautions taken, the project's lead operator turned to Irazawa in search of his permission.

Feeling just the slightest hint of trepidation, Irazawa activated the intercom and ordered, "Turn it on."

A bead of sweat ran down the operator's face as he turned back to his computer. He knew this was a terrible and dangerous thing they were doing, but his curiosity had taken complete control of him. He no longer cared that their creation might be uncontrollable, perhaps unstoppable by their means. He curled his fingers as they hovered above the enter key, and finally he spoke, "Activating the ex-con."

His finger crashed into the enter key, and immediately the ex-cons eyes opened. The blade joined with its cybernetic host in a flash and immediately it took on the guise of the ultimateblade.

"Magnificent," Irazawa quietly commented. Beside him, Keiichi wore his terror on his face, while the little girl to his right barely seemed awake at the sight of the ex-con's transformation.

"This is the creature you would have take my place, isn't it?" Mio asked. While she was such a young child, her voice had the depth of a grown woman.

Irazawa's eyes doubled in size. Mio was supposed to be a virtual clean slate; strictly obeying his commands and not thinking on her own, "What?" Without another word, Mio stepped from the observation room and knowing she was his only protection, Irazawa quickly tried to stop her. "Mio! Stop!" He shouted, though the little girl continued into the lab area without the slightest hint of fear or slowing. "Mio!"

The door slid closed behind her and she took her cloneblade form, donning her white and black armor. Feeling the power emanated by Mio's transformation, the ex-con's safeguards failed, and it broke free of its restraints. Luckily, all of the scientists were able to escape into the observation room, and lock down the lab before getting caught in the inevitable confrontation.

"The smell…" the ex-con's mechanical voice spoke, "…so young, so strong." Its tone became laced with madness, "Certainly she will be the best I've ever had!"

"Sir!" Keiichi exclaimed as he and Irazawa watched on.

Irazawa himself was stunned to silence at the standoff, when both creatures suddenly lunged towards one another. Mio's performance was elegant, gracefully dodging the bladed ex-con's attacks as she learned its patterns. Seizing an opening in the pattern, she extended her blade and pierced the machine's armored chest in a single blow. While the ex-con groaned, Mio had left herself vulnerable and in close proximity to the creature. It raised its gun-equipped arm and opened fire on her. She failed to panic as the ex-con's attack shredded her armor, her expression remaining blank even on the brink of death. She raised her free arm and extended another blade, which she used to sever the ex-con's gun-equipped arm. Its assault ceased instantly and Mio proceeded to cut the ex-con down, piece by bloody piece.

Irazawa hadn't truly understood the power of the NSWF's latest blade until now. He was confident that Masane had overpowered Yagi in the form of the ultimateblade, and now he had witnessed a dualbladed Neogene completely destroy an ex-con baring the same weapon. As the ex-con fell to pieces, Mio reverted to her human form and fell to the ground unconscious. "Everyone get in there and tend to her!" Irazawa barked to his scientists.

* * *

In her apartment, Masane and Reiji lay beside one another in Masane's bed. With Rihoko just on the opposite side of the thin and movable wall, they were on their best behavior, though they were quietly enjoying the taste of one another. Reiji pulled his from hers and Masane noticed the look on his face. "Hey, what's the matter? Am I that bad a kisser?"

That was one of the many things about Masane that he absolutely loved. She could make him laugh without even trying. He chuckled slightly as he replied, "No, Masane; you're most definitely _not_ a bad kisser."

She blushed slightly, "Then what's wrong?"

Where he had made it a point to avoid her hypnotic eyes, it was late, they were alone, and he was done playing games. He'd lost her once before and with her future uncertain; he wasn't going to miss this chance. "The truth is; the thought that I'd never get to kiss you again was killing me."

She wore her surprise on her face as she asked, "What?"

"I love you, Masane Amaha." Her glazed eyes glistened in the faint light of the apartment as he spoke, "I may have loved you from the first moment I saw you."

It took a moment for his words to register. While she could only remember six of her twenty-three years, not once in those six years had any man uttered those three words to her. She had fought off her feelings for him right up until the moment he first kissed her, and now that he'd given up hiding his feelings from her, she knew it was time to come clean herself, "Reiji…"

He remained silent, giving her the time she needed to organize her thoughts. He'd have been a liar if those weren't the longest seconds of his life.

She smiled just slightly before continuing, "…Before you came into our lives, I wasn't sure if Riko would ever have a father, let alone her real father. You're everything she needs in a dad."

"What about you?" Reiji asked.

Masane looked up to him with a warm smile. She felt sublime at realizing that this was it. That in this moment, she'd finally have this off her chest, "I _do_ love you, Reiji."

"Masane…" Reiji muttered before delicately placing his hands on her cheeks. Their lips met in a frenzy of passion, though they were sure not to get too carried away.

As they pulled apart, Masane's tears ran down her cheeks and she commented, "This is it, you hear me?" She gently ran a hand down the side of his face as she spoke, "From now on the three of us are a family."

"Deal," Reiji replied.


	7. Monsters

The following morning, Irazawa stood at the head of the boardroom table with Mio and Keiichi at his sides, "Gentlemen, it appears that in the process of attempting to bond the ultimateblade with an ex-con, we've come to a far greater conclusion." He clicked a remote, which brought up a series of statistics on the board member's monitors.

Taking in the data, one of the men asked, "What are we looking at, Seiji?"

"During the experiment, we _did_ achieve a successful union between the ultimateblade, and an ex-con." A collective gasp spread across the room as Irazawa continued, "However, once the bond was complete, little Mio was drawn to the ex-con. Naturally, I attempted to stop her…"

One of the men leaned to the man beside him and whispered, "Just like he let that other sister die, I'll bet."

Immediately, Mio's eyes locked on the whispering man, which brought Irazawa to stop speaking. He observed the direction Mio looked in to find his two former questioners directly in view. "Something on your mind, Takeda?"

"This man thinks you did nothing to try and stop me," Mio replied with not a hint of emotion in her tone.

"Is that so, Takeda?" Irazawa asked.

Knowing that Irazawa had for all intensive purposes killed one of the sisters, Takeda felt great confidence in calling Seiji to the carpet, "You yourself saw one of the sisters killed, Irazawa! Does your precious little cohort know that? Does she know how you feel about the Neogenes? That you believe they are expendable?"

"Lies!" Mio chastised, finally raising her voice. "Mr. Irazawa takes the utmost care of us. He would never do anything to harm us!"

"You're so blinded by it, that you can't even see that he's controlling you!" Takeda shouted. "He's making you think-"

Mio's pointer finger extended into a long, tentacle-like blade, piercing Mr. Takeda's left eye, and forcing him back into his chair. The men about the room collectively panicked as Irazawa calmly spoke, "You see gentlemen, Mio killed Mr. Takeda of her own volition. I told her to do nothing of the sort."

As Takeda's body twitched from Mio tickling his brain, she finally retracted the tentacle, pulling his body from the chair and allowing it to fall to the ground.

"You've gone too far now, Irazawa. We have no choice but to-"

Mio raised both hands and brought every finger to fly just before the face of every man in the room, Keiichi included. "Fear not gentlemen, I assure you she has the greatest of control. Allow me to take this opportunity to offer each and every one of you an out. You may leave the company and no harm will befall you. However, should a word of anything that goes on behind these walls ever see the light of day…" He smiled as he finished his thought, "…well, I trust your imaginations serve you well. For those of you willing to remain with the Doji Group, I assure you, we will all soon be very rich men."

* * *

"Mom…" Rihoko quietly said to her unconscious mother. "Mommy…" She took a deep breath and finally shouted, "WAKE UP, MASANE!"

Reiji watched on from the kitchen table as a startled Masane jumped out of bed and fell to the floor. Truly it was an unkind thing he had asked of little Rihoko, especially considering what he and Masane had discussed just a few hours ago.

As she came to, Masane rubbed her head and Rihoko quickly came to her aid and helped her up. "I'm sorry, mom; dad asked me to wake you up. I tried to do it quietly, but you were really zonked out."

Masane smiled slightly and replied, "That's alright, Riko. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?"

"That's right," Rihoko replied with a smile. As Masane righted herself and sat up in bed, Rihoko asked, "Were you having those dreams again?"

Reiji's smile from seeing Masane fall out of bed quickly vanished at the mention of her dreams. Of course Masane spared her daughter the details of her dreams, "No, not really. I was just really comfortable."

"Oh good," Rihoko replied with a sigh of relief. Masane would never cease to be anything but amazed by how grown up Rihoko was. It was no wonder the witchblade wanted her. As she thought on it, she was again brought to wonder just why the witchblade had chosen to keep her alive. Something she had done must have drastically altered her favor with the witchblade, but what?

"Come on, mom!" Rihoko ordered, snapping Masane from her trance, "I made breakfast for you and dad!"

* * *

Half the members of the board had taken Irazawa's deal and left the Doji Group. Several of those who remained were in fact on the same committee Takayama once was and finally, one of them were curious enough to ask, "If I might ask, Seiji; where is Takayama throughout all this? We are to understand that he has recovered the witchblade from the site of its last battle. If we are to learn more about it for our own research, won't we be needing both the woman and the weapon?"

"A fair question, Professor Lee. Please allow me to explain," Irazawa replied. "Reiji Takayama has done many great things throughout his tenure with the Doji Group. However, as with the other former members of this board, Takayama has lost his way." He smiled as he continued, "He's in love with the current barer of the witchblade and while I agree that having the witchblade in our possession is crucial to our research, we do have an ace in the hole."

"I'm sorry?" Lee asked.

"As you all know, the cloneblade and the witchblade rapidly deteriorate their host bodies." As Irazawa spoke of the death that awaited her, Mio remained silent and motionless. "In the case of Miss Amaha however, the witchblade seems to have formed a bond that extends beyond that of a mere symbiote. It has brought her back from crystallization and now that he has the woman he loves once again, he's going to do everything he can to keep her alive. His research on slowing or preventing blade-induced breakdown ultimately returns to us, so that we may implement it in an even stronger cloneblade."

"But what about the Neogenes?" Lee asked.

"An excellent question, and yet another alternative that Miss Amaha won't be so lucky to utilize," Irazawa commented.

"Engineer a stronger Neogene, to further avoid blade-induced breakdown."

"Precisely."

* * *

"Unbelievable Riko!" Masane shouted from the table. Truth be told, she was simply grateful to taste Rihoko's food, "You just keep getting better and better!"

While Rihoko wore a satisfied smile, Reiji swallowed his food and too commented, "Exquisite, Rihoko. I have to ask, how did you learn to cook like this?"

"It's not that hard really," Rihoko replied with a smile. "After cooking a couple of recipes, it's pretty easy to figure out what adds what flavors. All you have to do is mix and match them and voila!"

"Fascinating," the scientist in Reiji replied as he looked down to his plate of food. He looked back to Rihoko and put on his best smile, "If you keep this up, someday you'll be the best chef in all of Japan."

"I'll try real hard, dad!"

While Reiji and Rihoko carried on about their little girl's future as a five-star chef, Masane was once again lost in the relationship that had built between them. A warm smile rested on her lips as she thought to herself, _"We came back to Tokyo to be a family, Riko. I don't know how long I have in this world, but I'm going to do everything I can to make it last as long as possible."_

Suddenly, Masane was woken from her thoughts with a wide-eyed gasp. The witchblade emitted a red glow and immediately, Reiji and Rihoko turned to her and near simultaneously asked, "Are you alright?"

She looked towards the window in their apartment and saw it was still quite dark out this early in the morning. Her heart pumped harder and harder in her chest; her lust for a fight was inescapable as a familiar feeling passed over her, _"An ex-con, and it's close."_

"Masane?" Reiji asked.

She snapped herself out of it and turned to Rihoko wearing a calm smile, "Mom and dad need to go to work for a minute, sweetie. Can you-"

The concern on Rihoko's face was immeasurable as she interrupted her mother, "Are you going to fight the monsters?"

She flinched slightly, but after what Rihoko had seen in the woods, then on the highway a little over a week ago, there was no hiding it anymore. She placed a hand on her daughter's nervous face and replied, "I am, but I promise I'll be careful."

Rihoko leapt from her seat, and wrapped her arms around Masane as she ordered her, "Please don't get hurt again, mommy!"

In that instant, Takayama remembered just how difficult this was for Rihoko. He saw it that day on the highway, and here it was again, clear as day; the fear their daughter felt for her mother. He wasn't sure if it was his place or not, but from across the table, Reiji spoke to his daughter, "Rihoko?" Quickly she turned to face him, her tear soaked cheeks stopping him in his tracks before he worked up the courage to speak, "I promise, I'll take good care of her till we come back."

Rihoko wore quite a stern look as she ordered her father, "You'd better, or else you'll be dealing with me!"

Funny how iWeapons and ex-cons, witchblades and cloneblades, all seemed somewhat tame by comparison to his daughter's warning. He raised his hands slightly and again gave her his word, "I promise, Rihoko; I'll bring her back just the way she is."

The desire Masane felt to throw herself into battle was becoming difficult to fend off. She turned a still fuming Rihoko to face her, and with as soothing a tone as she could muster, spoke once more, "I'm sorry but we have to go, Riko. I promise we'll be right back."

Again Rihoko gave her mother a tight hug, "I'll wait right here."

They pulled away from one another and again as to not upset Rihoko, Masane and Reiji calmly walked to the door. Masane turned once again to face Rihoko who now sat at the table, alone once again. What was she to do? Now that she knew an ex-con was about, she lusted for a fight, but she hated seeing her daughter this way. "We'll be right back, Riko."

"Be careful mom," Rihoko replied looking supremely concerned.

Masane quietly closed the door behind them, and sprinted down the stairs, leaving Reiji behind, "Masane, wait!"

"Go to the car, I'll be right there!" Masane shouted.

Reiji headed out to the deserted street and started the car, while Masane ran to Tozawa's room. Her fists slammed into the door and finally he opened up.

"This better be good, Melony," a very groggy and disheveled Yusuke groaned.

Out of breath, Masane replied, "Riko's upstairs, she made breakfast, can you stay with her for a minute?"

Without waiting for an answer, Masane turned and ran down the hall. "Wait! Melony? Where are you-?"

"Ex-con!" Masane shouted from the end of the hall. As she ran, her thoughts grew louder in her mind, _"It's close, too close."_

She came out onto the street just as Reiji had unpacked a few items from a medical bag onto the backseat. Masane jumped into the backseat of the car and Reiji floored the accelerator, "Where to?"

"Shibuya," Masane replied as she slipped a monitor collar around her bicep.

Watching her in the mirror, Reiji asked, "Do you remember how I showed you?"

"I got it," Masane replied, albeit a bit muffled as she used her teeth to pull the strap tight around her arm. She picked up a hand-held monitoring device and clicked a switch bringing it to begin logging multiple graphs.

"_I can feel it; it's an EM series. I thought I'd dealt with all of those versions," _Masane pondered. As they came to a park in central Shibuya, she looked up and called out, "Here! Stop the car!"

Before the car could come to a complete stop, Masane removed the collar, and leapt from the backseat. "Masane, be careful!" Reiji shouted.

Guided by instinct alone up to this point, Masane darted through the brush, instantly reminded of her dreams. Finally in the distance, she caught her first glimpse of this latest ex-con. Her eyes turned white as they had just before her transformation, and immediately the ex-con turned away from the frightened woman it had cornered. "What a wonderful aroma, I can warm her up!"

"_I have to concentrate; don't want to go full-power if I don't have to!" _A growl emanated from Masane's lips and without completely transforming, she extended a blade from her right arm. Closing in on the creature by the second, she whipped the blade from right to left as she passed the ex-con's left side. She came to an abrupt halt, her hair and clothes catching up with her as she hastily retracted the blade. She turned to face the EM, as it spoke, "Nice and-"

The unit slid into two halves before bursting into flames. From the car, Reiji had watched the encounter via a pair of binoculars, "Her control over the witchblade has increased exponentially; incredible."

Masane turned back to the woman the EM had targeted and spoke as calmly, yet sternly as she could, "You saw nothing, understand?" The woman nodded in fear, and Masane addressed her once more before returning to the car, "Go home."

Within just a few moments of having exited Reiji's car, Masane hopped back in just as Reiji finished up a phone call, "Yes…Yoyogi park…thank you." As soon as she was in the car, Masane began the same process she had undergone just moments ago, once again strapping the monitor collar to her arm.

Reiji turned to her and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Didn't even break a sweat," she replied with a confident smile.

"You didn't complete your transformation; do you think that was wise?"

"We still don't know how this thing is going to affect me this time around. If I can avoid going all-out on an enemy, I should live that much longer, right?"

Reiji's scowl remained as he replied, "Correct."

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Masane spoke, "C'mon daddy, let's get back to our little girl."

Rihoko's father turned off Takayama-mode and gave Masane a smile, "Yes ma'am."

"Ooooh ma'am," Masane replied cheerily as the car pulled down the road. "A girl could get used to that kind of talk."

* * *

In the lab Irazawa was using to conduct his recent experiments, Seiji's personal bodyguard lay on a table, completely unrestrained. While this was normally a very foolish oversight, Mio was as solid as a stone. There was something about this girl. Granted the Neogenes were raised in a most unique manner, Mio's unflinching demeanor was almost more unsettling than Maria's. Even lying on a table with the prospect of surgery looming overhead, Mio almost looked angry.

In the observation room, Keiichi observed Irazawa as he hovered over one of the scientist's shoulders. "Sir, if I might ask…"

"Yes, Keiichi?"

"What is the purpose of today's experiment?"

"We are to understand Takayama is monitoring Miss Amaha's physical and mental condition in order to further his research on blade-induced breakdown. Likewise, if we are to utilize his research, we should keep track of Mio's condition as well."

Keiichi smiled and replied, "Ah, I understand."

Irazawa turned back to the monitor as the scientist spoke, "Your first experiment with Akimi-"

"Yes?" Irazawa questioned harshly.

Taking notice of his reaction, the scientist replied, "During your first experiment with the dual cloneblades, the subject exhibited strength and power on a scale the team needed to recalibrate their instruments for. Amazingly enough, Mio's development seems to be even greater and is still progressing."

"Is that so?" Irazawa asked. "I might have to arrange a meeting for Miss Amaha and Mio; for developmental purposes of course."

"Of course," Keiichi replied with a knowing look.

* * *

Masane just set foot into their apartment, and Rihoko immediately sprung from her seat opposite Tozawa, "Mom!"

As Rihoko wrapped herself around her mother's leg, Masane chuckled slightly as she replied, "I told you I'd be back soon, and look…" Rihoko stepped away from her, and she spun in place as she finished her thought, "…not a scratch on me."

Tozawa smiled at the display and commented as he stood from his seat, "Well, looks like I'll be heading out. After all, somewhere out there, my big scoop awaits." As he neared the door, Masane turned to him and as he had the night before, she took him into her arms without warning or preview. "Melony?"

She whispered in his ear, just loud enough for him to hear her, "Thank you."

He pulled away from her, smiling once again and quietly replied, "It's nothing Melony. See you later."

As he closed the door behind him, Rihoko asked, "So mom…" Masane quickly turned to face her daughter, "…where did dad go?"

She wore a bright smile as she replied, "Dad had to take care of a few things at the office; he said he'd call me if anything came up."

"You mean, if there were any more monsters?" Rihoko asked inquisitively.

Masane chuckled slightly, "Umm…yeah. But, until he calls, I'm all yours, Riko. So what'll it be?"

Rihoko raised a finger to her temple as she thought about what she wanted to do for the day. "How about we go for a walk, and then maybe get some ice cream?"

"Anything you want, princess Rihoko," Masane replied with a wide grin.

* * *

"And you say she hadn't even completely transformed when she did this?" Segawa asked in the dock lab he and Takayama used to conduct their research with Masane. On the monitors in front of them, graphs indicating her performance numbers were displayed.

"Correct," Reiji replied. "It seems she is getting the hang of channeling the witchblade's power where she needs it. In the case of this latest ex-con; speed, strength, and of course her blade. None of which she seemed to have any difficulty wielding in human form."

Segawa brought up the graph from the previous day and overlaid it with the data they had collected today. "Until I further process her numbers, any measure of her physical condition will be a rough estimate at best."

"If you could," Reiji asked.

"Already ahead of you, sir," Segawa replied. With a final stroke of the enter key, Segawa continued, "Hmmm…At the moment it seems that the variation between yesterday and today is virtually unnoticeable."

"If you could, please get to work with further processing Masane's numbers." Reiji's eyes locked on the graph as he spoke, "Clearly her physical health is exponentially greater than it was, the question now becomes; what has caused this shift in the witchblade's performance?"


	8. Enemy

Masane and Rihoko strolled through the same park they had just a few days earlier. During their walk among the flowers, they came to the very same spot in which Masane had told her daughter what was happening to her. That one day Rihoko wouldn't see her mother anymore. Unfortunately, Masane had been so wrapped up in their hike that she hadn't even realized where she'd led them. Rihoko however knew exactly where they were and as she remembered that day, her legs locked in place.

Masane turned to Rihoko and asked, "Riko?" Tears filled Rihoko's eyes and as Masane looked around, it dawned on her where they were. She knelt in front of her daughter and gently took her hands into hers as she softly spoke, "Hey…"

"This is where you told me I wasn't going to see you anymore mom," Rihoko said as tears slid down her cheeks.

Masane placed her arms around her daughter and did her best to quell her tears, "Oh Riko, I'm so sorry I ever had to tell you those things."

"Please promise you won't go away again, mom," Rihoko begged.

Though it was a promise she might be unable to keep, it was a promise she had to make, "I promise, Riko." Masane pulled away from her and delicately wiped her tears. Again she took Rihoko's hands into hers and with a gentle shake, she reaffirmed her promise to her daughter, "I promise." Rihoko managed to bring her quivering lips to smile and Masane powered through, "Hey, how about that ice cream?"

At long last, Rihoko's tears ceased and a genuine smile came across her lips, "Can I get chocolate and vanilla?"

They headed off towards the park exit as Masane replied, "Anything you want, baby."

* * *

Having just shifted out of her cloneblade form, Mio sat upright on the table and two tending nurses covered her up. Irazawa walked up alongside the table and addressed his bodyguard, "You're progressing exceptionally well my child."

"Thank you, sir," Mio replied.

"Soon we will give you the test you were built for," Irazawa commented with a smile.

"The witchblade," Mio replied.

"That's right. It has to choose its host on its own you know. The only way it's going to choose you, is if-"

"I'm stronger than the current barer," Mio finished.

Irazawa chuckled slightly, "And I have no doubt you _are_ stronger than the current barer."

She hopped from the table and asked, "I wish to return to the training facility, may I?"

"That's my little girl," Irazawa smiled. "Of course you may."

As Mio stepped from the room, Keiichi approached Seiji, "Her progression is astounding. In all the research I've done concerning the NSWF's cloneblade program, I understand Mio was shelved as a candidate for the cloneblade. Something about a fault in her genes that made her incompatible with the witchblade."

"I've read the same report," Irazawa replied as he watched her through a window as she walked away. "I especially liked the part about how even though she had been put to pasture, she continued training. She's growing, Keiichi; every time we attempt to study her cloneblade form, we're forced to adjust for her new power levels."

"Do you fear she may grow _too_ strong, sir?" Keiichi asked.

"Is there such a thing as too strong, Keiichi?" Irazawa asked, his smile telling of something far greater. _"Soon enough, we'll find out just how strong she truly is." _

* * *

As the daylight faded later that day, Reiji sat at a table in Marry's Café with Masane leaning up against him. A glass of wine resided in Takayama's hand while Masane was still cut-off from liquor per Rihoko's orders. Naomi sat at alone at her usual table, and while Mr. Chou sat at the bar, he was turned to face Masane and Reiji. Being forward as always, Mr. Chou asked, "So are you kids thinkin' about the big 'M'?"

They both immediately flinched, though Masane would be the first to make her voice heard, "What?"

"We're…" Reiji began. He looked to Masane who had turned back to him. In that moment of staring into her big brown eyes, he wanted nothing more than to propose to her right then and there. However, reality wasn't so simple, "…not quite there yet."

"Hmmph," Chou quietly commented. "You have a daughter together, you certainly seem like you're in love; seems to me, gettin' hitched is the next logical step for the two of you."

Searching to get the attention off of her and Reiji, Masane asked, "Say, what do you think is taking Riko and Mariko so long?"

In Mariko's kitchen Rihoko held a small skillet while Mariko held her knee, "What in the heck did you hit me for?"

Rihoko's scowl wasn't all that dissimilar from her father's as she spoke, "You scrambled the eggs!"

"So what? They're going to get cooked at over four-hundred degrees anyway, what's the difference?" Marry asked.

"With the eggs scrambled it will be too thick to blend and the brownies will taste like chocolate-flavored scrambled eggs!" Rihoko replied as she slipped her apron off. "Now we need two more eggs, and another bar of chocolate."

Mariko let her foot back to the floor as she tried to stop Rihoko from going out for more ingredients, "Just hang on a minute, I'll-"

"Don't worry about it Miss Mariko, I needed a few things from the market anyways," Rihoko replied as she stepped out of the kitchen.

"Criminy, that kid's gonna be the death of me," Mariko commented as Rihoko peaked her head back into the kitchen.

Wearing an adorable look of guilt, Rihoko apologized, "Sorry about your knee."

While Mariko loved to both yell, and hold grudges, she could hardly stay angry at her culinary rival. She put a slight smile on and replied, "Ah don't worry about it. Hurry back, these brownies aren't gonna make themselves you know."

"Okay," Rihoko replied.

She headed back into the café and at the sight of her daughter exiting the kitchen with her backpack on and no food in hand, Masane asked, "Is everything alright, Riko?"

"Yeah, Marry…" she caught herself a bit too late, but nonetheless attempted to be kind, "…I mean, someone scrambled the eggs so I need to go buy more."

Masane stood from her seat looking a bit more serious than usual, "Hang on, I'll come with you."

"It's alright, mom. It's not far," Rihoko replied.

Masane smiled, "I know, but it's getting dark out and I just want to make sure you're safe."

"Alright," Rihoko replied.

Masane turned back to Reiji and called to him from the door, "We'll be right back. You boys play nice now."

"Bye dad!" Rihoko waved.

Reiji smiled and waved, but when he turned back to Chou, he found the old man seated beside him in Masane's seat. Caught off guard, Reiji again contrived a smile as he spoke, "Uh…hi."

"So you and Melony…are you…" Chou looked most devious as he finished his thought, "…well you know."

"Uh-" Reiji attempted to speak only to be cut off by Chou.

Chou bumped his elbow into Reiji's arm as he exclaimed, "Oh come on now, it's just us guys."

"Hey, wait a minu-"

Chou turned to Naomi and interrupted her, "Zip it headshrinker!" While Naomi cowered away, Chou turned back to Reiji and again asked, "So how 'bout it? Is Melony everything I ever dreamt she would be?"

Reiji looked horrendously confused as he finally gave an answer, "Umm…yes?"

Chou erupted into loud tears and dropped his head onto the tabletop, further frightening Reiji. As he balled his eyes out he replied, "Of course she is!"

Still confused beyond belief, Reiji looked around the room and patted Chou on the back. It was rather humorous, just how difficult it was for Takayama to be human at moments like these, "Uh…it's okay?"

Chou looked up at Reiji and asked through his hysterics, "Are you a righty or a lefty?"

"Righty, why?"

Chou continued to cry out loud as he stood and walked to Reiji's opposite side. Again he sat down, but this time he lifted Reiji's right hand to pat him on the back. "Uh…is that…better?" Reiji asked.

"At least if I can't have Melony, I can have the hand that touches her," Chou replied as he continued to cry.

* * *

Back in Segawa and Takayama's lab, Segawa finished entering the last bit of data and gasped, "This can't be right." He ran the dataset once more only to achieve the same result. He picked his cellphone from the desktop, and after hastily scrolling through his contacts, put the phone to his ear.

At Marry's, Reiji continued to pat Chou on the back, while he retrieved his ringing phone from his pocket with the other hand. Without looking to the caller ID he answered, "Takayama…Segawa, yes what is it?" Reiji's eyes widened and he suddenly stopped patting Chou on the back. "Are you certain?"

"Huh?" Chou asked as he looked up to Reiji.

"I ran the test three times, sir," Segawa replied. "Not only are Masane's power levels the highest we've ever recorded, but according to this preliminary data, her physical condition is actually _improving_."

"What about the witchblade itself?" Reiji asked.

"What I have to say about that may upset you, sir," Segawa replied, instantly upping Reiji's anxiety. "The readings we've taken from the witchblade suggest an instability; almost as though it's fighting with itself."

Segawa's description of the witchblade's readings turned a light on in Reiji's thoughts, "Fighting with itself…"

"Sir?" Segawa asked.

"Setup another training exercise for tomorrow. While I don't want Masane pushing herself any harder than she absolutely has to, we _need_ more data."

"Yes sir," Segawa replied.

"Is everything alright?" Chou asked as Reiji stood from the table.

Reiji knocked back the remainder of his wine in one quick gulp and asked, "Which way is the market Rihoko goes to?"

* * *

Rihoko and Masane walked through the market hand-in-hand. As she walked, Masane looked down to her daughter and commented, "I think this might be the first time I've ever gone to the market with you, Riko."

Rihoko looked up to her mother and replied, "I think you might be right. I've told everyone about you, but you were always too busy with work to come and meet everyone."

After a short walk from Mariko's, they came up to the row of vendors, and Masane was blown away by the selection. Even in the failing light, the streetlights illuminated the various produce into a field of color. "It's so pretty, Rihoko," Masane commented.

They stopped at a cart full of strawberries and Masane's eyes nearly doubled in size. From behind the cart, the vendor greeted them, "Rihoko! Haven't seen you for a few days, is this that mom of yours that you're always going on about?"

"Sure is!" Rihoko exclaimed.

Masane bowed to greet the vendor, but as she leaned forward he raised two massive strawberries in her way, "Please, the both of you try one!"

"Wow, thank you so much!" Masane replied.

Their teeth sank into the strawberries and they both made the same supremely satisfied reaction at the same time. After purchasing several fruits, as well as the ingredients for the brownies, Rihoko and Masane began their walk back to Mariko's. "That was so much fun, Riko! From now on, I want to come here with you every time," Masane exclaimed.

"Okay, mom!"

As they walked, Masane saw Reiji approaching them in the distance. "Hey it's your dad." While his scowl was fairly consistent, Masane had learned of its subtle characteristics; she could see that something was up.

"Hey dad!" Rihoko shouted as she ran to give him a hug.

"Hey there, kiddo," Reiji greeted before looking back to Masane.

"Is everything alright?" Rihoko asked taking notice of the look her parents shared.

"Of course, Rihoko. I just need-"

Reiji was interrupted as the witchblade began to glow and just vaguely hum. Masane wrapped her hand around it and looked around the surrounding area. "Is it an ex-con?" Reiji asked.

Masane was shivering slightly as Rihoko asked, "Mom, are you okay?"

"_I haven't felt anything like this since-"_

"Good evening, Takayama," Irazawa spoke with Mio at his side. Rihoko ducked behind her father while Seiji looked Masane up and down, "This must be the lovely Miss Amaha." While he offered her a slight bow, Masane's eyes were deadlocked on the cloaked little girl at his side, "Seiji Irazawa, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Her eyes still focused on the girl, Masane replied without returning the bow, "Yeah likewise. So who are you exactly?"

"Has Takayama told you nothing about me?" Irazawa asked snidely. "I'm the CEO of Doji Group; the big boss."

Reiji smiled slightly, knowing full well that Masane's temper would undoubtedly be heating up. "Not _my_ boss," she casually remarked.

"Excuse me?" Irazawa barked.

"I said, 'Not my boss'; is there a problem with that?" Masane asked, wearing her contempt for the sniveling little man before her on her face.

"You forget your place, woman! I'll-"

Masane simply turned and walked back to Reiji and Rihoko as she replied, "Stuff it. Doji doesn't own me."

"Leaving so soon…" Mio quietly called, "…witchblade?"

Masane stopped in her tracks, which brought Reiji to flinch. She'd been struggling so hard these past few moments to keep her desire for a fight buried. The market was full of patrons, and the last thing any of them needed were Masane and a Neogene of unknown power facing off in public. Unfortunately, as Reiji observed her face, he knew Masane wasn't in complete control. She turned back to the little girl and leaned down to her level, "What do they call you?"

"Mio," she replied.

"How old are you, Mio?" Masane asked wearing a confident smile.

"Old enough," she replied before crossing her arms in front of her, revealing just enough of her blades in an attempt to intimidate Masane.

"Really?" Masane asked as her eyes took on their familiar white glow.

"No!" Reiji denounced putting his hand in between them. He turned to Masane and quietly snapped her out of it, "Not in front of Rihoko."

Masane's eyes finally pulled away from Mio's to meet Takayama's. Without a word she turned back to Rihoko, and in the blink of an eye, she regained control. She knelt beside her frightened daughter and asked, "Are you okay, Riko?"

"Who is that little girl, mommy?" Rihoko asked as she involuntarily stared at Mio.

Not having a real answer to offer Rihoko, Masane turned back to Reiji and Irazawa, and made a shot in the dark, "I think she might be that man's daughter."

Irazawa smiled as he addressed Takayama, "She's got quite a temper, Takayama."

"All those who bare the witchblade do," Reiji replied. "Why have you come here?"

"Let's just say I had a hunch that Masane frequented this area, and I wanted to meet her," Irazawa replied.

Reiji looked down to Mio and commented, "Seems to me like you came looking for a fight."

"Oh nonsense," Irazawa replied. "However, if Masane would be interested in taking Mio on, it might very well prove to be beneficial for the both of them."

"Excuse me?"

Irazawa smiled, "Why don't we call it a 'training exercise'? Would tomorrow work for you?"

Reiji looked back to Masane and Rihoko for a moment. He knew Irazawa was up to something, but he did need the data from Masane. He turned back to Irazawa, "I'll be in touch."

"Very good, Takayama; I look forward to hearing from you."

Irazawa and Mio turned and headed back into the crowd. But, just before they disappeared, Mio turned back to Masane, wearing a most unsettling and blank expression. Her eyes locked with the little girl, Masane thought to herself, _"Something about that girl."_

"Are you alright?" Reiji asked as he came back to Masane and Rihoko.

"Yeah we're-"

"Who was that man?" Rihoko interrupted Masane.

Reiji knelt next beside Masane in front of Rihoko, and replied with as comforting a smile as he could muster, "That man is my boss, Rihoko. He was in the area and wanted to say hello."

"Oh, okay," Rihoko replied.

Masane stood and changed the subject as she took Rihoko's hand into hers, "Come on, Riko! I could go for some brownies."

Immediately Rihoko's unsettled look vanished and she perked up, "Oh yeah! Come on mom, let's go!"

As Rihoko dragged Masane and Reiji back to Marry's, her mother and father shared telling looks.

* * *

In Masane's apartment, her and Reiji stood about in discussion of what had happened tonight. "I can barely describe it; I wanted to rip that girl apart, right then and there," Masane explained.

"A Neogene," Takayama replied.

"But how? With the NSWF dissolved, where did she come from?" Masane asked.

"Having been allied with them once before, Executor Irazawa purchased the NSWF's remaining assets, including but not limited to, all of the remaining Neogene sisters, and all of their research on the cloneblade," Takayama replied. "Could you by any chance tell how she was outfitted?"

Masane thought back to her fight with Maria atop Tokyo Tower. She was an exceptionally strong enemy, even in Masane's more potent form. However, a single thought comforted her rather well; she was nearly dead _before_ that battle began.

"Masane?" Reiji asked, again snapping her out of it.

"Sorry," Masane replied. "She is wearing a cloneblade, but I don't know the differences between those that were made. Whatever it is, I can tell you it is unbelievably powerful." She looked back to Reiji and asked, "What did he say to you before we left?"

"He wants to setup a 'training exercise' between the two of you; he's definitely planning something. I think it's best we stay-"

"Set it up," Masane interrupted.

"What?" Reiji asked in shock.

"Set up the exercise."

Reiji took a seat at the table between them and calmly spoke, "There was a reason I went to find you in the market tonight." He looked up to meet her eyes and finished his thought, "Something is wrong with the witchblade."

Masane's eyes instantly widened at the news, "What?"


	9. Issues

"I've had Segawa running the numbers on your latest lab results and he found some disturbing news," Reiji replied, bringing Masane's worried expression to flatten out completely.

She took the seat opposite Reiji looking exceptionally depressed. Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, "So I _am_ going to die again."

"No," Reiji replied simply.

Immediately she perked up, breaking a few stray tears loose in the process, "What?"

"While we still require more data on your current situation, we do have years of old data to compare it to," Reiji explained. "From the moment the witchblade is bound to its host, its toll on the body has always been immediately measurable. However, in Segawa's latest, but limited analysis of your recent performance, not only are you growing more powerful, but your physical condition has actually improved."

Masane smiled slightly, "So I'm-"

"There's more," Reiji interrupted, silencing Masane. "Apparently the numbers suggest an instability within the witchblade itself."

"Instability?" Masane asked.

"I might not have put this much thought into it initially, but the way he described it caught my attention."

"How's that?"

"That the witchblade is fighting with itself."

Masane gasped and flinched back in her seat. "My dream," she replied.

"Is there anything more about those dreams that you can remember?" Reiji asked.

Flashes of Masane's dreams ripped through her mind. First and foremost, the memory of being impaled dozens upon dozens of times, then the numerous taunts the witchblade offered her every time it left her to die. Finally, she remembered being covered in a new armor. Her eyes closed as she remembered the sensation of being overcome with a new power, which while not as strong as the witchblade, had allowed her to destroy her adversary and escape.

"Masane?"

"In my dream, a different form of armor covered me," Masane explained. "That's how I was able to finally defeat the witchblade." Takayama's eyes narrowed, and she raised her blade-baring wrist into view as she continued, "You told me that this is a living thing, right?"

"Correct," Reiji confirmed.

"Is it possible that it…" Masane searched for the right words, "…I don't know, has issues?"

While it was a rather simple minded explanation, it was anything but a bad theory. Just as the witchblade was evolving, it may very well have been suffering some sort of internal conflict of its own. Takayama retrieved his cellphone and raised it to his ear, "Segawa…prepare multiple scenarios for tomorrow's exercise; we've got work to do."

Suddenly the door to the apartment swung open and in walked Rihoko, holding a tray of brownies. Reiji quickly hung up on Segawa and his and Masane's conversation evaporated from the room as Masane greeted their daughter, "Riko!"

She placed the brownies on the table and as Masane reached for one; Rihoko called out, "Wait mom, I'll get you both plates and milk."

"Thank you so much, Riko!" Masane exclaimed with a smiled.

As Rihoko retrieved plates and glasses for her mother and father, they shared a concerned glance. Masane's thoughts consumed her, _"That girl tonight; there is something about her. I can't place it but…"_ she looked to her wrist, _"…I can feel it."_

* * *

The following morning in the café, Mr. Chou, Naomi, and Michael all sat about eating the brownies Rihoko and Mariko had made the night before. Behind the bar, Rihoko stood atop a milk crate beside Mariko. "I gotta hand it to ya, kid; you sure know your way around a kitchen."

"Thanks, Miss Mariko," Rihoko replied with a smile. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"Ah sure you could. You've been out-cooking me since the day you showed up here," Mariko praised.

"Hey Rihoko!" Tozawa happily greeted from the back of the cafe.

"Mr. Tozawa!" Rihoko exclaimed. "It's been a while since we've seen you around here."

Tozawa exhaled on his fingernails and buffed them up against his shirt, "It just so happens I've been spending my time with a certain lucky lady."

"Really?" Masane asked as she and Reiji entered the room.

"Mom!" Rihoko called as she leapt from the bar to give her mother a hug. On the opposite end of the room, Mr. Chou watched Masane and Reiji walk up to the bar and once again began crying to himself.

"So let me guess…" Masane said as she turned to Tozawa, "…you've been spending all your time with Miss Kyoko, right?"

Tozawa took his seat, and threw his hands behind his head as he replied, "As a matter of fact you're right, Melony. Kyoko hooked me up with a gig as a cameraman. It's not much right now, but someday who knows what might come of it; professionally or personally."

"Congratulations," Reiji replied as he offered Tozawa his hand.

Tozawa accepted Reiji's hand in a solid shake and replied, "Hey thanks."

Masane turned to Mariko and asked, "Say Marry, Reiji and I need-"

"You know if he spends more than half the nights in a month here, I'm gonna have to hit you with an additional surcharge," Mariko interrupted.

Masane instantly forgot what she was going to say and barked back, "What? You're gonna charge me for Riko's father to stay with us?"

"You don't like my rules…" Mariko raised her hand and pointed to the front of the building, "…there's the door."

"Guess you were right; some things never do change, you miserable old gasbag!" Masane barked.

"Sticks and stones, Melony," Mariko calmly replied.

"Why you-"

"It's no trouble, Masane," Reiji calmly replied as she approached the bar. He locked eyes with Mariko and turned on the most handsome smile he could muster, which amazingly brought Mariko to blush slightly, "I'll take care of any surcharges incurred by my time here."

"Are you sure?" Masane asked.

"Of course," Reiji replied. "After all, whatever Miss Mariko would charge me to stay would surely be a small price to pay for the company of my family, and the fine folks here at the Gallery."

Takayama was good. Mariko looked like she was about to burst as she attempted to keep her calm, "Did you need something, Melony?"

It came back to her finally, "Oh yeah. Reiji and I have a busy day planned at the office. Would you mind watching Riko for a few hours?"

"Not a problem, Melony!" Mr. Chou shouted as he took his seat at the bar. He discreetly sniffed beside her, _"Not fair, she smells so good."_ He shook the thought from his mind and continued aloud, "Leave everything to us. We'll take good care of Rihoko while you two take care of things at work."

Hearing mention of Masane's "job" aloud, now that they knew she wasn't merely some jack-of-all-odd-jobs, everyone in the room wondered just what she did when there _wasn't_ some massive threat to Japan.

"Thanks so much," Masane replied before kneeling down to Rihoko. "Now you be a good girl and listen to Mr. Chou and Miss Mariko, okay Riko?"

"Of course, mom," Rihoko replied with a smile.

She gave her daughter a tight hug and placed a kiss on her forehead, "I love you."

"Love you too, mom. Be careful today," Rihoko replied.

"I will."

As Masane stood up, Reiji leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of Rihoko's head. It was a first for him and he'd been contemplating and planning that move for days. Judging by the look on Rihoko's face, it had worked perfectly. He offered their little girl a smile and finally said his goodbyes, "We'll be back soon, Rihoko."

"Take good care of mom!" Rihoko replied.

"I will," He replied as he ran his hand through her hair, just enough to cause her to giggle. "Love you, kiddo."

Oh how Masane's heart melted at hearing those words come from his lips. She loved that he and Rihoko had finally found their way.

"Love you, dad," Rihoko replied.

* * *

In the backseat of a luxurious automobile, Irazawa and Mio sat in silence. As he looked on the little girl who would protect him with her life, Irazawa proudly smiled. Almost as though she could feel his gaze, she turned to him and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all my dear," Irazawa replied. "Today all of your hard work and training will finally pay off."

"The witchblade," Mio replied.

"That's correct, my dear. Soon the current barer will fall to you, and you will undoubtedly be chosen as its successor," Irazawa replied.

"Can we be so sure?" Mio asked. "You yourself told me that the witchblade must choose its own host. What if I'm not suitable?"

"Mio, what would ever give you that idea? Young, strong, fearless; all characteristics the witchblade seeks in a host."

"Why did it choose the current barer then? She doesn't appear to be any of those things."

"Miss Amaha was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I suppose even an entity as powerful as the witchblade is entitled to the occasional mistake of judgment," Irazawa replied.

"Perhaps," Mio replied.

While he didn't want to push her, Irazawa could tell something was bothering Mio. Being a blade-equipped Neogene, she too could feel and interpret the presence of witchblade technology. She knew the limits of her power very well, but when she met Masane just a few hours earlier, she could feel her strength. While Mio was virtually fearless, the power emanating from Masane was like nothing she'd ever known.

* * *

In Takayama's research facility, Masane stood among the fake storefronts, once again donning plain clothes. The sound of sheathed steel resonated from her arms and the trio of iWeapons behind her fell to pieces.

"Incredible," Segawa commented. "I must say; her power has become nothing short of fascinating."

"Indeed," Takayama replied. "Prepare the next wave." At the far end of the facility, a buzzer sounded and a series of doors opened revealing the next wave of iWeapons. "Are you alright?" Reiji asked Masane via her earpiece.

Just as she had calmed her breathing, a six-strong formation of iWeapons slowly approached her. "How am I doing?" Masane asked.

"Exceptionally," Reiji replied. "You've already surpassed your previous performance numbers by ten percent."

The iWeapons continued their approach and Masane asked, "Do you think you have enough data for the physical tests yet?"

Reiji looked to Segawa who shook his head 'no'. He looked out to the field and replied, "Not quite. This next wave should do it. Are you alright?"

Now within one hundred yards of the horde of iWeapons, a white glow filled Masane's eyes, and she smiled obscenely as she lightly laughed, "You need a show; I'll give you one."

A howl poured from Masane's lips as the witchblade's true form overtook her. The iWeapons grew closer and closer by the second, though Masane just stood there; like a lion waiting for precisely the right moment to strike. Her jeweled tongue passed over her lips and finally, her bladed heals dug into the pavement as she pushed off towards the machines. Any attempt to follow her rapid movement would have been fruitless. A red and white streak ripped through the iWeapon formation before they had any opportunity to attack. As she came to a halt, her hair caught up with her and her armor jingled slightly as it came to rest.

Again, the severing of the iWeapons occurred simultaneously with the retracting of her blades. Her clothes again shifted back to normal and she turned back towards the observation window, "How's that?"

"Remarkable," Reiji commented as he observed a sharp spike in the already impressive graph. He placed a finger to his earpiece, "I'll be right down."

Masane looked down to her bladed wrist and bent her arm at the elbow, almost as if she were testing the joint. She curled her fingers and closed her eyes in concentration. Her expression tightened slightly as she extended a blade from her forearm. It wasn't exactly painful, but in all the time she'd possessed the witchblade, she'd never taken a moment to feel how it interacted with her body. Her left hand carefully came across the frayed hole in her flesh, in which the blade extended from. It didn't feel foreign or alien; it felt like a part of her body.

Lost in the moment, Masane hadn't even noticed Reiji approaching until he was right in front of her. He'd never been so close to her like this, a blade formed in an otherwise completely human state. Her eyes bore no glow, and her clothes needn't even dissolve to allow for the weapon. Reiji gently placed his fingers on the blade and locked his eyes with Masane, _"She truly is remarkable."_

Masane carefully retracted the blade, which brought Reiji to quickly pull his fingers away. As the blade vanished back into her arm, Reiji asked, "Does it hurt?"

Masane smiled slightly as she replied, "No." They walked towards the elevator and she continued to explain, "Honestly, I don't even feel it anymore. The armor, the blades; at this point they all feel like they're a part of me."

"I see that," Reiji replied.

"Huh?" Masane asked.

"The control you've developed over the witchblade's power is unprecedented," Reiji replied. They stepped into the elevator and he continued, "According to the research Reina did during her stint with the Doji Group, it can sometimes take months for a cloneblade barer to develop that level of control."

"Guess I had to be above the curve in something, right?" Masane asked as the doors closed in front of her.

* * *

At Marry's gallery, Rihoko sat beside Mr. Chou at the bar. Rihoko was hard at work compiling a list, while in front of her sat her favorite of all Mariko's dishes; pudding a la mode, with extra fruit. However, on this rare day, the pudding had _just_ begun to melt. As she walked back behind the bar, Mariko saw the pudding drip onto the bar and immediately lost her temper, "Criminy kid! You had me rush to put that together for you, and now you're letting it melt?"

Rihoko looked up from her list and replied, "I'm sorry, Miss Mariko. It's just that school is coming up and Mr. Chou made a good point that I should start making a list of all the things I'll need."

"And that's what's taking you so long?" Mariko barked.

"Well you see, I finished that list in just a few minutes, but then I thought, I should probably make another list for my mom," Rihoko replied.

"A list for Melony?" Mariko asked. "What for?"

"So she knows what needs to be done around the apartment, and what food to buy at the market while I'm away at school," Rihoko replied. "As long as she's not at work of course."

"Fine, fine, just don't let that pudding go to waste, you hear me?" Mariko ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Rihoko replied as she put down her pencil and picked up her spoon.

* * *

Several minutes later in the medical ward of Takayama's compound, Masane once again emerged from the MRI-like body scanner. As the table locked in place, she pushed herself upright and approached Segawa and Reiji, "Well?"

"I apologize," Segawa replied. "I've simply never imagined statistics like this were possible."

"I take it that's in a good way?" Masane asked.

"You could say that," Reiji replied. "You remember the three graphs we showed you after your first test," Masane nodded and Segawa called up the original graphs. With a few keystrokes, two additional line graphs were super-imposed, immediately bringing Masane to gasp.

"As you can see, the results are astounding," Segawa replied. He pointed to one of the graphs and continued, "On top of being nearly double the readings we initially took several months ago, your physical condition continues to strengthen."

"Yeah, you mentioned that last time," Masane replied. "I don't suppose you could break it down for the primate," Masane cracked, bringing a smile to Reiji's lips.

"Certainly," Segawa replied. "In short, your body isn't breaking down, but is in fact getting stronger and more resilient."

A wide smile appeared on Masane's lips as she exclaimed, "Well that's great, right?"

"I would still like to continue our regimen of testing," Reiji replied. "I'll have our boys in the lab get to work on cooking up a simpler, faster and more efficient method for measuring your physical status in the field. Until we've gathered even more data, I'd still like you to take it easy."

"I will," Masane replied, yet just as she'd promised to take it easy, her eyes widened.

Taking notice of her reaction, Reiji wore his concern on his face and he asked, "What is it?"

"It's her," Masane replied.

"Who?" Reijii asked. "Irazawa's Neogene?"

Masane's eyes narrowed as she continued, "She's taken form in the training room."

Reiji turned to the computer behind him. With a few quick keystrokes, he called up an overhead layout of their training facility. About the rooms, there was a single room containing three red-orange dots, presumably the heat signatures of Masane, Reiji and Segawa. In the massive indoor city, a single thermal signature made way to the center of the room. In the observation room, there was an additional signature, more than likely that of Irazawa.

As he looked on the screen, one of the signatures in the room they were in blipped red. He quickly turned to Masane to find she had been enveloped by her red and white armor. "Masane wait!" Reiji shouted.

She slipped her earpiece in as she calmly stepped to the door, and replied, "Collect as much data as you can; I'm going."

"Masane!" Reiji shouted.

Segawa struck the 'enter' key on his computer, leapt from his seat and headed towards the rear door. He clicked the switch on the panel beside it, sliding the door out of their way and calmly addressed his boss, "After you sir."


	10. Split

In the main training hall, Masane slowly traversed the false city streets in search of the Neogene, _"I can feel her."_ She proceeded with caution, knowing full well that this girl would be anything but weak.

From the rooftop of one of the buildings, Mio watched on as Masane walked the corridors in search of her. Finally, Masane got a lock on the Neogene and their eyes met. Neither took a step or made the first move, they merely stared the other down.

Reiji and Segawa burst into the observation room to find Irazawa seated and watching a split feed of Masane and Mio on a monitor, while he nursed a drink in his right hand. "What are you doing here, Seiji?" Takayama barked.

"Takayama, I didn't know you were using this facility today," Irazawa coyly replied.

"Of course you didn't," Reiji replied as he and Segawa ran to the control panel. Segawa brought his account up which was still collecting data, while Reiji called up Masane's monitor feed and slipped his earpiece in, "Masane, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Masane quietly replied from the street, the overtones of the witchblade evident in her voice.

"I don't suppose there's anyway you can let this go, is there?"

"Well I guess that's up to her now, isn't it?" Masane quietly replied. The pleasure laden sub-tones of her voice kicked in as she continued, "It's taking every last ounce of strength in my body not to rip her apart right this second, but I _can_ hold it."

"Just don't-"

Without drawing any attention on himself, Irazawa depressed a button on his watch, and immediately, Mio's head perked up. Without the slightest of telegraphs, Mio launched herself from the rooftop directly at Masane with both blades extended. "She's coming!" Masane shouted to Reiji as she took a defensive position. "I've got no choice!"

While Irazawa may have held great confidence in Mio, he hadn't seen Masane's recent numbers; he had no idea what he was throwing this child into. "Don't push her any harder than you have to," Reiji ordered. "If you can diffuse the fight in her, do it!"

"I'll try!" Masane replied.

Mio's blades finally crashed with Masane's and an elaborate display of parrying began. Sparks flew but physical contact was avoided as they traded swings and defensive maneuvers. As the battle progressed, the level of intensity grew, though both combatants remained supremely calm as they avoided each other's blows.

Observing the look on Mio's face, Masane wondered to herself, _"She looks so calm. She's not allowing her anger to overcome her."_ Masane added her blade baring knees to the battle, further heightening the display of acrobatic parrying on both of their behalves. _"I am stronger, and faster, but if I give her the slightest chance, she'll catch up quickly."_

Masane finally saw an opportunity to non-fatally strike the little girl and seized it. The blade on Masane's right arm crashed into the armor on Mio's left, and finally the Neogene's assault ceased. She leapt back from Masane to give herself some distance to recover as she tended to her arm.

In the observation room, Irazawa jumped from his seat and shouted, "Mio!"

"_Masane, are you alright?" _Reiji asked over her earpiece.

She raised a finger to her ear, and calmly replied, "I'm fine."

"And the girl?" Reiji asked.

Masane observed Mio's trembling cloneblade form and replied, her voice filling the observation room, "She's fine. With strength like hers, she'll recover quickly."

Reiji approached Irazawa and commented, "I admit this version of the cloneblade is extremely powerful, but Masane's power is growing by the minute. The witchblade's strength is greater than we'd ever imagined."

"Sir!" Segawa called to Reiji, which brought him to turn to face a monitor.

In an unprecedented display, Masane approached the girl and helped her to her feet. "Why help me?" Mio asked as she took Masane's hand. "I'm weak, you should finish me off."

Masane shifted back to plain clothes in an effort to appear less threatening to the child, "You're very strong, Mio. You and I may be built for combat, but I didn't take this job to fight you and your sisters."

Just as a slight calm had passed over Mio, Irazawa again engaged the switch on his watch, and Mio's body immediately responded. Her expression was awash in anger as she shouted at Masane, "Then you are the one who is weak!"

Masane flinched back as Mio created a blade with her left arm. Before Masane's transformation could take place, Mio attempted to sever Masane's arm in an effort to obtain the witchblade. Immediately, Masane reacted, withdrawing her arm when suddenly, the witchblade emitted its familiar red glow. A violent roar erupted from Masane's lips as the witchblade appeared to defend itself. A barrage of vein-like straps burst from the jeweled gauntlet and latched onto Mio.

"Sir!" Segawa shouted, as the readings they were taking grew more and more unstable. "Something is happening to the witchblade!" All three of the men in the observation room watched on as the witchblade itself began to attack Mio.

As the straps covered Mio's body, Masane was overwhelmed with fear, _"What's happening? Is it finally through with me? Is she a more suitable host?" _She growled in pain as she shouted to Reiji, "iWeapons; send in as many as you can!"

Takayama raised a finger to his ear as he replied, "iWeapons, why?"

"If the witchblade leaves me, she's gonna kill me! I'm going to need a distraction!" Masane shouted.

Reiji called up command orders and deployed the iWeapons per Masane's request. He turned back to Segawa and asked, "Report!"

"Masane's power is still increasing, but whatever is happening to Masane, is happening to the other one as well," Segawa replied.

"What?" Irazawa asked in a panic.

Mio shouted in extreme pain as the witchblade's straps enveloped her cloneblades. The synthetic gauntlets exploded from her wrists, and Mio's pain elevated even further, when finally a burst of energy erupted between Mio and Masane. They were both knocked back, though they both landed on their feet, prepared for battle if need be. Masane was once again covered by her red and white armor, while Mio's armor had just finished taking form. Masane's intrigue covered her face as she observed Mio's new armor, _"That armor! It's the same as my dream! But how can that be?"_

Reiji, Segawa and Irazawa watched on completely awestruck as the two magnificent creatures stared each other down with a horde of iWeapons approaching behind them.

Mio briefly looked her new self over before raising her eyes to meet Masane's. Masane quickly wiped her curiosity off her face, and just as her jeweled tongue passed over her hungry smile, Mio's did precisely the same thing.

"Segawa!" Reiji called.

"Masane's power levels have increased by nearly one hundred percent over what we recorded earlier today," Segawa replied.

"What of Mio?" Irazawa barked.

"Mio's power continues to grow as well," Segawa replied looking mildly unsettled.

Without word or warning, Mio raised her blade-equipped arm towards the observation room, and her pointer finger shot out like a harpoon. Frozen in fear, Irazawa simply watched as the extreme extension grew closer and closer, only to cease after shattering the glass in the observation room, and piercing his forehead.

Masane's fear covered her face as she looked to the observation room and called out in fear for Takayama's life, "REIJI?"

"We're fine," Takayama replied for him and Segawa. "She killed Irazawa."

Masane turned back to the girl to find her smiling before finally retracting the blade. "Why? Why did you do that?" Masane scolded. "Answer me!"

"He was using me; controlling my mind," Mio replied. Masane gasped at the revelation and Mio continued, "He was a liar; he was weak."

"Reiji?" Masane whispered.

Takayama and Segawa worked feverishly to obtain new readings from Mio's new form. "Have you got anything?" Takayama asked of his assistant.

"The bio feed I was picking up from Mio, it just…disappeared. It's almost as though whatever has come over her doesn't want us to know what is going on inside her," Segawa replied.

Reiji raised a finger to his ear and replied, "Masane, we've got no data on Mio's current condition; do not engage!"

Finally, the iWeapons Masane had requested joined the party. "These iWeapons, can you shut them down?" Masane asked aloud.

"I'm trying to, but they're unresponsive. With the amount of power coming from you and Mio, they must be malfunctioning," Reiji replied.

Mio and Masane's attention immediately diverted to the horde of iWeapons and perverse smiles came over both of their lips.

* * *

At Marry's Gallery, Rihoko checked the clock on the wall to find it was nearly three in the afternoon. _"It's been six hours and mom or dad still haven't called. I hope everything's alright."_

* * *

Within just a few moments of their arrival, Masane and Mio decimated all of the iWeapons Reiji had called. As the last of the iWeapons fell, Masane's feet met the pavement shortly after Mio. Simultaneously, they retracted their blades and returned to their human forms. Masane looked towards the witchblade and even after just turning back, she again tried her power by creating a blade, _"Nothing new there. What about…"_

Masane observed Mio as she looked to the new jeweled gauntlet that resided on her right wrist; twisted black metal, with a single gold jewel. _"What's going on?"_ Masane asked herself.

Mio looked away from Masane as she spoke, "One day we'll meet again, witchblade." She looked up to meet Masane's eyes and finished her thought with a smile, "On that day, we'll see who is the strongest."

"Mio…" Just as Masane attempted to speak with her, Mio once again took her new form and fled the room.

A brief silence filled the massive hall while Masane looked to the twisted remains of the iWeapons, and raised a finger to her earpiece, "Reiji, are you there?"

"We're here," Takayama replied. "Are you alright?"

"Please; tell me you've seen something like that before," Masane replied, though Takayama's silence was all the answer she needed.

"Make your way back to the medical ward," Reiji replied. "We monitored a massive increase in power during your battle with Mio and the iWeapons. I'm not thrilled that you were forced into expelling so much energy, but the additional data should at least be put to good use."

"Right. I'm on my way," Masane replied.

"Segawa," Reiji called as he looked to the mess that Mio made of Irazawa.

"Yes sir?"

"I'm going to meet Masane. Please, see to it that Seiji is taken care of," Takayama requested.

Though he knew that Irazawa's intentions this afternoon were the furthest thing from honest, Reiji had never wished any harm on him. Irazawa's place wasn't in the field, but at the head of the Doji Group, and by assuming himself capable of controlling a Neogene, he sealed his own fate.

Reiji looked to one of the screens displaying a looping replay of Masane and Mio's confrontation. He turned back to Segawa and ordered, "See to it that our recovery teams are on the lookout for Mio. If they see her, they're to follow, but not engage."

"Right away, sir," Segawa replied.

* * *

In the medical ward, Masane sat atop the table waiting for Reiji to arrive. He entered the lab just a few moments later, and at the sight of her on the table; he quickly approached her, and wrapped his arms around her. Masane closed her eyes as she placed her arms around him, and he quietly spoke, "I thought we might have lost you again today."

Masane smiled slightly, "Relax, Reiji." She pushed him away and flexed her arms, "I'm fine, see?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders and a delicate kiss on her lips as he replied, "Please be careful, Masane."

"I will," Masane replied with a warm smile that Reiji returned before heading over to the computer. She quickly lay back on the table and asked, "So what the heck happened back there?"

Reiji turned back to face her, "It's difficult to say exactly. We locked onto Mio's bio feed rather quickly, but shortly after she took her new form, we lost it."

"Do you have any idea what might have happened?"

Reiji had quite a good idea as to what had happened, but having just fought; he didn't want to worry Masane any more than he had to. "Segawa and I will be looking into it. Our concern right now is _you_, Masane; making sure that _you_ are okay."

Masane smiled slightly and Reiji just barely returned the gesture. She still found it endlessly amusing how difficult it was for him to display human emotions. "C'mon, let's get this over with; our little girl is waiting for her mom and dad to come home," Masane calmly replied.

* * *

Just as the day gave way to night, Reiji pulled his car up in front of Mariko's Gallery with Masane in the seat beside him. She hopped from the car and noticed that Reiji hadn't shut the car down. "Are you coming?" Masane asked.

Reiji avoided her eyes as he spoke, "A lot happened today. Please forgive me, but we must know more about today's events and their effect on you."

Masane smiled slightly before leaning back into the car, subconsciously accentuating her assets for him, "Will we see you again tonight?"

Again he avoided looking at her, in fear that he would be unable to deny himself her company, "I can't say for sure. I'll call you if something turns up."

She stepped out of the car and closed the door behind her. She walked around to the driver's side door, and Reiji lowered the window for her. Hanging onto the windowsill, Masane leaned into the car and brought her lips to meet his. He gently brought his hand to her cheek just as she pulled away from him, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Masane."

She stepped away from the car and Takayama drove off back to the lab. Masane turned to Marry's and her smile grew wider at the sight of Rihoko seated at her usual table, opposite Mr. Chou.

Masane passed through the door and at the simple sound of the door sliding open, Rihoko's head perked up and she shouted in excitement, "Mom! You're back!"

Masane knelt down to meet Rihoko, "Hey Riko!" Her daughter clung to her giving her a tight hug, which Masane returned, "I missed you so much, baby."

They pulled away from one another and Rihoko asked, "Is everything alright, mom? Where's dad?"

"Everything's fine, sweetie," Masane replied. "Your dad had to work a little late tonight, but I'm sure we'll see him tomorrow."

"Oh, okay," Rihoko replied with a smile. "Come here mom!" Rihoko grabbed Masane by her wrist and dragged her to the table she was seated at. On its surface were a stack of handwritten pages, maybe five or six deep.

"What's all this, Riko?" Masane asked with a light tone as she took a seat beside her daughter.

"These are your chores!" Rihoko cheerfully replied.

Masane loved her daughter. She loved her more than anything in this world. However, at hearing that Rihoko had written up a list of chores for her, she immediately lost her cool, "My what?"

"When I go back to school, I'm not going to have the time to go shopping and clean the apartment, so you're going to have to, that is when you're not too busy with work," Rihoko replied.

"But I-"

"Don't worry," Rihoko interrupted. "I wrote everything down, and even spread things throughout the week for you so you don't get overwhelmed."

Masane couldn't resist her little girl's smile. It was infectious and immediately she regained her calm, "Whatever you say princess Rihoko."

"Criminy, that kid's sure got you on a leash, Melony," Mariko commented as she lit a cigarette.

While Masane looked a bit angry at Mariko's comment, Rihoko continued calming her mother down, "While you were at work, I also wrote down a list of all the supplies I'm going to need for school."

"School, wow is it really that time already?" Masane asked.

"Uh huh!" Rihoko happily replied.

"That's my great girl," Masane replied. She looked up to the clock in the gallery and looked back to Rihoko just as she yawned. Again she couldn't help but smile at how adorable Rihoko was.

They left the café to return to their apartment, and Masane put Rihoko down for the night. As she brought the sheet to her daughter's neck, Rihoko asked, "Are you sure everything's alright, mom?"

Everyday, Rihoko constantly reminded Masane just how badly she didn't want to lose her again. A thin sheet of glass appeared in Masane's eyes as she replied, "Everything's fine, baby; I promise. I'm not going anywhere."

She placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead and by the time she had pushed herself up, Rihoko was already fast asleep. _"Reiji and Segawa seem pretty confident that I'm doing much better this time."_ She looked down to the witchblade, _"Please, I'm begging you; don't make me a liar."_

* * *

Back in the medical ward, Reiji and Segawa sat back-to-back, each of them at a computer. While Segawa was working on Masane's numbers, Takayama was processing Mio's, as well as looking back through archives of witchblade research. Bored by the silence, Segawa made light conversation, "There are already rumors circulating that the board members are going to elect you to succeed Irazawa as Doji's new head."

"I kept that company above water once before, if they ask; I'll do it again, but it'll be on my own terms," Reiji replied.

Suddenly Takayama flinched bringing Segawa to turn and ask, "What is it?"

"In the mid-90's there was record of an incident in which the witchblade became unstable and a piece of it physically broke away from its host," Reiji replied. He turned to Segawa and spoke, "Your results from Masane's latest scan…"

Segawa turned back to his computer and remarked, "Two percent left to process, what am I looking for?"

"If it's there, you'll know it when you see it," Reiji replied.

The bar on Segawa's screen completed its process, and immediately he sorted through the logs. After just a few moments of searching, Segawa's expression shifted; he'd found what they were looking for, "But that's impossible."

"The advent of the witchblade leads me to believe that nothing is impossible," Reiji replied as he observed the numbers.

"But according to this-"

"Masane is no longer aging," Reiji finished for him. "The witchblade has strengthened her body and is now apparently preserving it as well."

* * *

As she lay beside Rihoko in her pajamas, Masane heard the vibration of her phone on the kitchen table. She carefully got out of bed as to not disturb Rihoko and checked the ID on the phone: Takayama Reiji.

She smiled and put the phone to her ear, "Hey, are you-" Masane's eyes widened as Reiji interrupted her on the other end. She turned to face Rihoko and replied, "I see…No I'm fine…" Again she paused as Reiji spoke, "So will we see you tomorrow?" A smile came across her lips and she replied, "You're not so bad yourself…" Her eyes again widened slightly as she absorbed his words for a minute. Finally, she replied, "…Love you too."

She pulled the phone from her ear and clicked end. As she placed it on the table, her eyes locked onto the witchblade and she quietly spoke, "Thank you."

* * *

_And that's that. If you made it this far I hope you enjoyed it :)_

_I've been going full-bore on this project for ten days straight, and in writing this, I had many more ideas for continuing what I've started here. Maybe a day or two for recovery/reflection and then back to work :)_

_Thanks very much for reading,_  
_-jm_


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